I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



^m 



THE PROBLEM 

OF 

Life and Ihoetality. 

AN INQUIRY INTO THE 

ORIGIN, COMPOSITION, AND DESTINY 

OP 

MAN. 



A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE BOSTON YOUNG 

MEN'S CHRISTIAN UNION, JAN. 3, 1861; WITH 

RECENT ADDITIONS. 



By LORING moody. 




BOSTON: 
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

158 Washington Street. 
NEW-YORK AGENTS, — THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 

119 Nassau Stbeet. 

1872. 



^ 



^. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 

By LORING moody, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Boston : 
Stereotyped and Printed by Rand, Avery ^ &= Co. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Although the part of this book relating to the 
origin and composition of man has been under consid- 
eration during more than twenty years, it was not until 
after the publication of Mr. Darwin's speculations on 
the " Origin of Species," and the " Descent of Man," 
that the ideas herein contained were reduced to writ- 
ing. 

The part containing the proofs and illustrations of 
immortality was written as a lecture more than twelve 
years ago. And although no subject of such deep and 
abiding interest has reached, or even approximated, the 
stage of final settlement, and though none has been 
more ably and earnestly discussed during these years 
than this, I have as yet seen no reason to change my 
views on any of the points here presented. 

It was my original purpose to leave the problem of 
God, or " First Cause," as already settled affirmatively. 
Then I remembered that the sacred books of Jews, 
Brahmins, Christians, Mohammedans, are no longer of 
binding authority with the deepest thinkers. And it is 
bandied about among half-thinking materialists, that 
"ihe argument from design is exploded," merely 
because Paley overdrew a little in some of his illustra- 
tions from natural history. 

As a caterpillar gnaws away upon coarse leaves, and 

3 



4 Introduction. 

a butterfly comes fluttering over, and fans him with liis 
wings, and the poor larva knows him not, and does not 
distinguish him from the leaves upon which he is feed- 
ing ; so in man's crude, immature, bodily, or larva state 
of being, the highest spiritual truths meet him under in • 
numerable forms, at every step and turn in life ; and he 
does not distinguish them from the gross materials by 
which he is surrounded. Hence he needs to have these 
truths pressed upon him, through every possible illustra- 
tion. 

So I have attempted further proofs of God, in an 
argument from facts. And, if I have added no new 
reasons, I have at least varied the forms of statement, 
and strengthened the old ones. 

The argument from design is good, and always will 
be good, until it shall be proved that outward forms of 
art precede the ideas which they represent, and that 
all of man's plans and designs are not continued and 
extended forms of the plans and designs of that same 
wisdom and power which first planned and designed 
him. 

The work has been prepared under great difficulties, 
which none but the writer can possibly understand. 
While, therefore, I admit that both the style and 
arrangement may be open to objections, I believe its 
positions and arguments will stand the " heaviest artil- 
lery " of criticism. If, however, they can be overthrown, 
because false and untenable, I shall gladly see them 
converted into a muck-heap, as nutriment for a fresher, 
stronger, and higher outcrop of truth. 

L. M. 
Boston, April, 1872. 



THE PROBLEM OF LIFE. 



"So has it been from the beginning : so will it be 
to the end. Generation after generation takes to 
itself the form of a body, and, forth issuing from 
Cimmerian night, on Heaven's mission appears. 
What force and fire is in each, he expends. One 
grinding in the mill of industry ; one, hunter-like, 
climbing the giddy Alpine heights of science ; one 
madly dashed in pieces on the rocks of strife, in 
war with his fellows : and then the heaven-sent 
is recalled ; his earthly vesture falls away, and soon, 
even to sense, becomes a vanished shadow. Thus, 
like some wild-flaming, wild- thundering train of 
heaven's artillery, does this mysterious mankind 
thunder and flame, in long-drawn, quick-succeeding 
grandeur, through the unknown deep. 

" Thus, like a God-created, fire-breathing spirit- 
host, we emerge from the inane, haste stormfully 
across the astonished earth, then plunge again 

5 



6 The Problem of Life 

into the inane. Earth's mountains are levelled, 

and her seas filled up in our passage. Can the 

earth, which is dead and a vision, resist spirits, 

which have reality and are alive ? On the hardest 

adamant some footprint of us is stamped in. The 

last rear of the host shall read traces of the 

earliest van. But whence ? O Heaven ! whither ? 

Sense knows not : faith knows not ; only that it 

is through mystery to mystery, from God and to 

God. 

* We are such stuff 

As dreams are made of; and our little life -*•- 

Is rounded with a sleep.' '* 

Sartor Resartus. 

The ahove^ remarkahle passages are from one of 
the deepest and most brilliant thinkers of this or 
any age. Grand, triumphant, hopeful, despairing, 
yet giving no clew by which to unravel the strange 
marvel of our own being ; but seem more like the 
blind struggles of a strong soul with some vast 
problem, or the efforts of a mighty giant to turn 
over bodily some great mountain, and thus reveal 
its secrets, than the patient, mining philosopher, 
who searches for results through long-continued and 
toilsome investigations. 

And yet these wild and almost bewildering sen- 
tences relate wholly to the questions of man's ori- 
gin, relations, and destiny. Whence are we ? 
what are we ? and whither do we go ? Qucs- 



A7td Immortality. 7 

tions which have brought out for their solu- 
tion the mightiest efforts of the wisest and mighti- 
est thinkers of all ages. And while various con- 
flicting theories have been proposed, and defended, 
with all the skill and ingenuity which the great 
masters of reason and rhetoric could summon to 
their aid, in one long-continued warfare, axe and 
stake, rack and dungeon, have added the weight of 
their terrible logic to different sides of the contest 
in turn. 

Yet amid the onset and encounter of the fierce 
debate, beneath the swiftly-descending edge of the 
flashing steel upon the quivering neck, in the fiery 
baptism of the crackling flames, while under the 
crudest tortures of rack or wheel, or wasting away 
in the death-damps of slimy and pestilent dungeons, 
Faith alone, which links the soul to the Infinite, 
has given the only answer yet accorded to our hun- 
gry and insatiable longings, " Through mystery 
to mystery, from God, and to God." 

But Eeason, to whose tribunals the inspirations 
of Faith are summoned, and at whose bar her tes- 
timonies and pleadings are heard, has never yet 
found that evidence of man's inherent immortality, 
growing out of his relations to the infinite life, 
which, based on science, and the philosophy and 
fitness of things, shall compose it to that perfect 
rest which springs alone from the full agreement 
of an enlightened understanding with the inspira- 



8 The Problem of Life 

tipns of simple faith. And now Faith itself must 
yield to demonstrative knowledge. Por the re- 
searches of scientists and philosophers are fast 
undermining the foundations of the religious and 
theological structures of the past, and leaving 
nothing hut vacancy and waste hehind them ; 
while the Spiritualists are huilding up a system 
of enduring, 'natural religious truth, because 
founded on reason, philosophy, and the fitness of 
things. 

The problem of human life — of man's origin, 
relations to the universe, the uses of the. trials and 
conflicts of this life, and his future destiny — has 
hitherto received no solution which has proved sat- 
isfactory, and so tranquillizing to the reason and 
understanding. And yet the human soul has for- 
ever longed, and still longs, for some clear and 
simple explanation of the mysteries of its own be- 
ing, so freed from the high-sounding phrases and 
obscure methods of the metaphysicians as to be 
easily understood by the commonest minds. And 
so I shall present the subject through simple, direct, 
and plain forms of speech, and by the most com- 
mon and easily-understood illustrations. And we 
shall not have to seek far for the means of. doing 
this. For, although the commonest things about us 
are full of mystery, they may help us to explain 
the grand mystery. All around is one vast sea of 
life, revealing itself through numberless forms. 



And Immortality. 9 

The humblest grass-blade under our feet, the sweet- 
scented flower at our side, each shrub and tree, the 
mighty elephant which shakes the earth with his 
tread, the earth itself, with man the lord of all, — 
are but revelations of unseen forces, visions of 
unknown power. 

These bodies of ours are but dust and shadows, 
gathered round our conscious selves, wherein we 
live, and whereby, as with implements and tools, 
through some moments or years, we work, eat, and 
sleep, to keep these same bodies in repair, that 
they may work and eat more ; and so the living, 
thinking me within may learn and know more. 

How wonderful, that the life and mind, which 
alone make up the proper selfhood of every one of 
us, and which no outward sense can cognize, should 
be wrought into such complete working relations 
with outward, or the grosser fornis of matter, as 
to be regarded by many as only the result and pro- 
duct of matter ! So let us, with the eye of reason, 
look the mystery in the face, and see if, with the 
help of common sense and common philosophj^, it 
be in any way, or to any extent, solvable. 

Outward sense cannot cognize mind, except 
througli signs ; and these signs have naturally led 
to the mistakes above stated. We see the plant 
unfold from the seed, and grow up to maturity ; 
the chick burst the shell, and come forth, a living, 
sensational being; and the life which animates 



10 The Problem of Life ^m 

these forms is supposed by many to be tbe result 
of their organizing processes : but I shall try to 
demonstrate, that the organisms are only the 
product of vital force, which, from the midst of 
this vast ocean of life, and under the guidance 
of an infinite wisdom, is forever clothing definite 
ideas in outward forms; these forms being only 
the symbols, or visible manifestations, of spiritual 
force, which is the only real power and substance 
in the case ; as the forms disintegrate and fade 
away whenever the animating force is withdrawn, 
while the living ideas which they clothed remain, 
and are imperishable. 

So, when. the materialist asks if I ever saw mind 
separate from organized matter, I can truly say, 
I never did. But when he further asks, if I do 
not know that when the body is destroyed the 
mind is destroyed with it, I can as truly say, I 
do not. But I do know, and shall attempt to 
prove further on, just the ^ififttrary. But I may 
say, here and now, that I never saw mind sepa- 
rate from organized matter ; and, what is more, I 
never saw mind at all. On all sides, and every- 
where, I see the signs of mind, but can see, feel, 
or hear nothing more. 

Let us use for an illustration some building or 
hall. We all know that this hall, with all its 
finishing and fixtures, is only the outward shape 
of the architect's ideas. He thought it all out 



And Immortality. II 

first, — so long, so wide, so high, such a finish, — 
and then fashioned his thought into wood and stone 
and brick and mortar, as the case may he, fol- 
lowing out its minutest details. And there are 
the people inside of it, — the thought and the 
outward shape of it: which is the thought em- 
bodied, or clothed in a material form. 

Now, the mind or thought of the architect is 
not the product of the hall, as everybody knows. 
Nor is the life of the chicken the product of its 
body. As the mind of the chicken produced its 
body ; so the mind of the architect produced the 
hall, and hence is first and greatest. And yet 
who ever saw the architect's thought ? heard or 
handled it ? And yet who will say, after due re- 
flection, that the invisible thought w^hich creates 
is not more substantive, real, and enduring than 
the thing created by it? This building shall 
crumble into ruins, and its materials exhale in 
gases; yet not one particle of its components 
shall be lost, or their essential properties destroyed. 
Every one of them shall exist to eternity, as they 
have existed from eternity. Is the living, creative 
thought more destructible than this dead, inert 
matter ? 

This hall is only the garment of the builder's 
thought, as our bodies are but the clothing of our- 
selves ; and both the hall and body are composed 
essentially of the same materials. Now, as the 



1 2 The Problem of Life 

builder's thought is clothed and manifested in this 
hall, and as the ruin of this hall will not destroy 
or even mar one form or detail of the builder's 
thought, so we are clothed, live, and are mani- 
fested, in our bodies ; and the decay of our bodies 
will not injure one attribute of ourselves. 

We must give more attention and greater 
though tfulness to the e very-day phenomena of life, 
in order to gain more knowledge upon this deeply- 
interesting subject. 

I once asked a professedly scientific lecturer, 
who was attempting to disprove the affirmations of 
Spiritualism, if he believed in the immortality of 
the soul. " Science knows nothing of the immor- 
tality of the soul," was his quick and flippant 
answer. Now, it is not science, but her pretend- 
ing "professors," who are ignorant on this sub- 
ject ; for science is as boundless as infinity 
itself. But puffed pretenders, having set foot 
upon the steps leading to some of her innumerable 
portals, begin to strut and swagger, and to tell 
what she knows and what she does not. Let us 
all cease our boasting, and reverently learn that 
more of her wonders and mysteries may be re- 
vealed and explained to us, as we know but little, 
comparatively, of what surrounds us ; for the 
atmosphere contains, and transmits through it, 
essences too subtle for our analysis. We cannot 
take them up with forceps, dissolve them in cruci- 



Ajtd Immortality. 13 

We, or discover them with microscope. They are 
altogether too fine for our clumsy handling. 

In dealing with material substances, we em- 
ploy microscopes, telescopes, spectrums, retorts, 
crucibles, lamps, — such means and appliances as 
shall subject them to the tests of one or more of 
our outward senses. But, in dealing with spir- 
itual substances, we must liberate ourselves from 
all bondage " to mere mechanical appliances : as 
we can subject them only to the tests of our spir- 
itual senses. So when we enter the field of scien- 
tific spiritual inquiry, crucibles, retorts — the 
paraphernalia of material science, — are of but 
little service, as we must adapt our methods to our 
subject, always ; and these instruments cannot 
handle and analyze mind, for mind is not sub- 
jected to chemistry, but chemistry is a subject of 
mind, which is the power that puts material 
things, and even its own processes, under its own 
analyses. 

Hence, the great difficulty with our wisest 
philosophers and scientists in dealing with spirit- 
ual problems lies in this, that they have not pushed 
their researches beyond the regions of external 
sense. Nor have they more than very partial!}'' 
explored these regions. Confining their investi- 
gations wholly to the material, they have come to 
the conclusion that the spiritual and unseen are 
not only unknown, but unknowable. And yet 



14 The Problem of Life 

outward sense instructs us largely in those things 
which lie beyond its own limits. And a little ex- 
amination will show us, that all art, science, 
law, are invisible and insensible ; and are known 
to us chiefly, if not wholly, through their relations 
to the visible and sensible : that in all things, 
the unseen and spiritual governs and controls 
the seen and material. 

With the outward eye we see the signs of 
numbers, 1, 2, 3, &c. Now, these signs represent 
ideas which stand in fixed and exact relations to 
each other, and which, like all ideas, are wholly 
invisible ; and yet they are imperishable, and so 
eternal. The " science of numbers," as a science, 
is altogether unseen ; and we make visible signs 
of its relations to outward things, to aid us in the 
affairs of outward life. 

So of measurement. A carpenter's rule is only 
an outward sign of an idea, of so much length in 
space. Our minds are full of limitations and 
definitions. We think, Plow long shall it be ? 
how high ? how wide ? and make a material 
fixed scale of measurement to represent these ideas 
of length, breadth, &c. And so of the whole cir- 
cle of sciences ; including the whole body of Ip-ws 
and statutes, both of nature and man. 

The statute-books only contain in their letters, 
sections, and chapters, signs of the ideas which 
legislators have established for the government of 



And Immortality. 15 

States and nations. And yet tliese ideas are wholly 
spiritual, and are never, of themselves, present to 
any outward sense. As these ideas are indestruc- 
^ble and eternal, is the living mind from which 
they emanate, which studies, analyzes, and com- 
prehends them, any less so ? 

OF GOD, OR FIRST CAUSE. 

Before proceeding farther in our inquiry, it 
may be well, perhaps almost essential, to look a 
little into the operations of Nature, and see if we 
can find some broad, comprehensive principle of 
Infinite intelligence operating through fixed and 
determinate laws, upon which we may base our 
arguments and conclusions ; rather than drift 
about in the broad sea of mere opinion, uncer- 
tain of our bearings and relations. For, in tliis 
inquiry, we wish to find out whether the orderly 
and methodical processes of Nature are carried on 
under the guidance of a superintending intelli- 
gence, with at least one clear and well-defined 
purpose, — the formation of man, — or are only 
the results of blind force. 

If we shall find such intelligence, with the evi- 
dences of purpose, in its various manifestations, 
this intelligence may stand as God, or First Cause, 
to our finite minds. I know there arc some who 
say there is no '' first cause." Then there is no 



1 6 The Problem of Life 

cause, and all the phenomena of the universe are 
without cause ; which is absurd. 

In seeking for a first cause, the atheist rejects 
the idea of God ; and so denies, as I understand 
him, an overruling intelligence, working in 
and through the operations of the universe. 
The idea of God is associated with supreme 
wisdom and power; which involve supreme life 
and mind. And it is incomprehensible to the 
materialist, or atheist, that the universe should be 
animated and governed by an intelligent soul. So, 
to avoid a difference about words, let us substitute 
Nature for God in our inquiry, and see if we do 
not come at last to the same thing. 

Does Nature reveal God to the human under- 
standing? In other words, does she furnish proofs 
of an overruling intelligence working through, 
and presiding over, the infinitely varied phenomena 
of the universe ? 

All thoughtful atheists, as well as others, agree 
that from nothing, nothing can come. So far as 
we understand the operations of Nature, in all the 
forms of her creative manifestations, like is forever 
producing and can only produce its like ; such 
being the law of generation, that the principles of 
any product must first be contained in the pro- 
ducing cause. A soil destitute of the elements 
of vegetable life cannot produce vegetation. Nor, 
if only destitute of the elements of a particular 
vegetable, as turnip, can turnip grow there. 



And Immortality. 17 

All the innumerable forms of life, sensation, and 
mind, which people earth, air, and sea, are the 
products of Nature. And Nature as a whole, like 
the soil, or any other of her parts, can only give 
or furnish what she has : and so must contain in 
herself the entire mental as well as physical qual- 
ities of all her products. This is admitted by all 
in regard to body. Is iron in our blood, lime in 
our bones, proteine compounds in our tissues, Na- 
ture provides them all. And this law applies alike 
to mind and body. 

As Nature contains in her storehouses all the 
elements of our physical, so she holds in her vast 
reservoirs all the elements of our spiritual struc- 
tures. For our material organisms, Nature pro- 
vides what she has ; and only that. So in regard 
to our spiritual, including the sensual. Sight 
comes only from that which sees ; feeling from 
that which feels ; hearing from that which hears. 
Can thought come from that which cannot think ? 
reasoning from that which cannot reason? judg- 
ment from that which cannot judge? To be- 
lieve it is to believe that something can come 
from nothing; which materialist and spiritualist 
alike hold impossible. 

All the thoughts, imaginations, passions, of the 
human soul, and of all souls ; and all art, beauty, 
deformity, crudity, perfection, — are in, and de- 
rived from. Nature. She reveals to us some of her 



1 8 The Problem of Life 

moods, passions, and humors, in the varying play 
of the elements. And, moreover, does the sculp- 
tor give us a fine statue, the painter a beautiful 
picture. Nature had done infinitely better before 
them, inasmuch as hers are wonderfully organic, 
and instinct with life throughout ; while theirs 
are only dead and senseless imitations. 

We are apt to deny spiritual attributes to Na- 
ture, as a vast whole, because, in the infinite 
grandeur of her being, she does not give us those 
little signs of speech and motion which we are 
accustomed among ourselves to regard as the only 
proofs of intelligence. And yet she is forever 
giving signs, more truthful and impressive than 
speech to those who are -wise enough to translatQ 
their meaning ; " For Nature, which reveals God to 
the wise, hides him from the foolish." 

The materialist refers all the phenomena of life 
— joy, sorrow, love, hatred, hope, aspiration, and 
the rest — to organization. Organization is merely 
arrangement, or combination; and the bare fact 
of combination creates no new principle, but only 
a new structure, or compound of what existed be- 
fore. Hence life, mind, and consciousness cannot 
be created by, or be the product of, organizations. 
If they are, then the union of parts forms some- 
thing greater than the whole ; which is absurd. 
These principles existed before, as parts of the 
universal life and consciousness ; and the organi- 



And Immortality. 19 

zation only serves the purpose of giving them 
individual life and consciousness. As the matter 
of the organism always did exist as matter, so the 
life and mind which animate and govern it always 
did exist as life and mind ; and they have only 
been separated from the Infinite, and clothed in 
finite organic forms, to give them, as before stated, 
individualized life, experience, and consciousness. 

Matter cannot exist without force, or life and 
mind, which are its soul. And force is but the 
expression of this soul of matter ; which shapes, 
fashions, governs, and reveals it to our finite con- 
sciousness, so that the finite may know there is 
an Infinite. 

Nature is an organic structure of infinite extent 
and duration. Even what we call " inorganic 
matter," as the rude, heterogeneous masses .of rock 
piled into mountain ranges, or pulverized into 
desert sands, are parts of the structure of the earth, 
and are essential to its wholeness. And this earth is 
but an infinitesimal part of the grand structure of 
the uni^'^grse ; which is animated by a life and guided 
by a mind which act with such unerring precision, 
that we base our sciences upon the absolute cer- 
tainty of her methods and processes. And these 
methods and processes of the Infinite Mind are to 
us law ; and matter does not govern law, but law 
governs " matter. You take a lump of clay, and 
fashion it into an image. Does the clay direct the 



20 The Problem of Life 

movements of your liands, and give shape to the 
ideal in your mind which you desire to work out? 
That is the end at which materialism begins. 
Spiritualism begins at the other, the scientific 
end. It looks through organization to what gov- 
erns and directs the process. 

We may not yet comprehend that Infinite and 
eternal Nature should work with a knowledge and 
understanding which not only include the knowl- 
edge and understanding of man, but of all other 
beings of the universe. Nor can the being which 
Huxley speaks of as " a mere infinitesimal ovoid 
particle, which finds space and duration enough 
to multiply into countless millions in a body of 
a living fly," comprehend man. 

It is incomprehensible to us that Nature should 
think, feel, and know all, and more than all, that 
we do. That she should plan, devise, and execute 
in any way as we do. And yet we are only her 
imitators. When we wish to accompUsh any giv- 
en work, we begin with a mental conception of it. 
The work really begins in the mind ; then we pre- 
pare our material, and with it give our conception 
an outward form. And herein we are only doing 
what Nature has taught us by inward instinct and 
outward example. She prepares her plastic material, 
or " protoplasm,'^ as. a " physical basis," in which 
she clothes and gives outward form to her innu- 
merable living ideas, from the molecule up to man. 



And Immortality. 21 

And when we make machines involving the 
nicest mathematical principles and equivalents, and 
the highest laws of mechanics, these principles, 
equivalents, and laws, together with all the 
knowledge, art, or science ever yet attained, or to 
he attained hy man, exist as primary elements of 
Nature, and we learn them from her. For as we 
derive our life from that which lives, so we derive 
our knowledge from that which knows. And, 
furthermore, as the life of Nature is infinitely 
greater, so is her knowledge infinitely greater 
than ours. Indeed, as man himself is hut an ex- 
pression or manifestation of Nature, all his inven- 
tions and devices are but continued and extended 
forms of her expressions or manifestations through 
him. 

So when I refer to our contrivances or inven- 
tions to illustrate the operations of Nature, I mere- 
ly take her secondary processes through man's 
intervention, to illustrate her primary ones with- 
out his intervention. 

Nature has her destructive, as well as her con- 
structive processes ; and the first are as orderly 
and methodical, or as much under the control of 
law, as the last. For the first are only preparatory 
steps to the last; and the convulsions of earth- 
quakes, tempests, tornadoes, the slow disintegra- 
tion of rocks, the silent withering and decay of 
grass-blades, the rotting of logs, the death and 



22 The Problem of Life 

decomposition of our own bodies, are only tlie op- 
erations of some pulp-mills in which she grinds and 
jDrepares materials for her wonderful formations. 
Now, the ■ material does not prepare and fashion 
itself, any more than man conceived and fashioned 
himself, or the clay fashions itself in his hands. 

Man, with all his thoughts, passions, and imagi- 
nations, with all the other creatures below him, 
are, as before stated, the products of Nature. From 
the boundless storehouse of her life and mind, she 
endows them all with their varied passions, in- 
stincts, and powers. To deny this, — to deny that 
these powers, instincts, passions, pre-exist in and 
are derived from Nature, is to affirm that they are 
derived from nothing, are self-created, or are su- 
pernatural. The theory here proposed is based on 
the ground of the universality and oneness of Na- 
ture, — that her life includes all lives, and her 
mind includes all minds, and her body includes 
all bodies, whether organic or inorganic. 

Now, all the organic forms of Nature which come 
within the reach of our analysis are governed and 
controlled, in all their processes and operations, by 
life and mind, or animating and guiding souls. 
And herein Nature but repeats or re-creates her- 
self. She endows her own offspring with her own 
essences. " Like parent, like child." For the uni- 
verse, as its name implies, is one vast whole, — one 
boundless organism animated, and governed by one 



A?id ImvLortality. 23 

Soul. And this soul of Nature is something as un- 
like its organic structure, in essence, as the es- 
sences of our minds are unlike the materials of our 
bodies. And yet this infinite Soul operates in 
and through the body of Nature, as our souls oper- 
ate in and through our bodies. Hence we reach 
the conclusion, that all the phenomena of the 
universe are caused by an overruling Intelligence, 
working in and through its numberless transfor- 
mations, processes, «&c. And this intelligence is 
something as different from the body and opera- 
tions of Nature, as the intelligence of a man is from 
the machine he constructs, or the house which he 
builds. Nor is this Infinite Intelligence any more 
unseen or unknown to our outward senses than 
the intelligence of man is. 

So, with what light reason affords me, and also 
in the light of science, I am forced to the con- 
clusion that Nature, so far from being soulless, is 
soulful. And this Soul of Nature is to me God, 
and supplies all I wish to feel or know of a Divine 
Spirit. For he is the Father of my spirit, as of 
all spirits ; and Nature is the mother by and 
through which we are formed. And so we are 
akin, by Divine conception and birth, with all liv- 
ing things ; and as man is the highest of all cre- 
ated intelligences, I need no higher tokens of the 
Divine life and presence than what I may find in 
truly cultured and loving human souls. 



24 The Problem of Life 

If, then, we accept the Soul of Nature as the real 
being of God, we have something upon which we 
may rest unfettered and unswayed by the narrow 
and conflicting systems of faith which human 
ignorance has set up ; for here is indeed the " Eock 
of ages." And yet here, also, we shall discover 
the reason of all these crude, conflicting, and bar- 
barous creeds. For all these faiths, and even the 
doubts and denials of atheism and materialism, 
are based on phases, or are themselves phases, of 
the Divine manifestations of Nature. For God, 
working through Nature, in his innumerable pro- 
cesses, reveals all conditions, from the rudest to the 
most refined and celestial. 

The rude, ravage, or uncultured man lives in 
the crude relations and affections of Nature ; and 
his ideas of God are based on her more savage as- 
pects. For he, being an untutored child of Nature, 
is especially impressed by her ruder manifestations ; 
and on beholding some grand display of his disin- 
tegrating and preparatory processes, — some earth- 
quake which buries cities full of men, some tor- 
nado which strews coasts with shipwrecks, some 
pestilence which depopulates countries, — regards 
these preparatory steps towards fresher and higher 
spiritual and organic conditions as tokens of his 
displeasure. Hence ideas of God's anger, jealousy, 
revenge, and the need of atonements and grace- 
winning sacrifices. 



• Ajid hnniortality. 25 

But, as the mind unfolds into broader and more 
comprehensive views and conceptions, it sees Na- 
ture in her formative and diviner aspects,' and 
contemplates God as the Genius of the universe, 
presiding in serene majesty, alike over its minut- 
est and its grandest Operations. So that, while 
God is a savage to the savage mind, he is wisdom, 
beneficence, and love to the mind enlightened by 
these sentiments. Hence, as above stated, all 
the various forms of religious faith, however con- 
ceited, weak, foolish, or wise ; all ideas of God, 
gods, revelations, miracles, &c., — are included in, 
and are as much the outgrowth of, the Divine life, as 
are the various individuals or classes who hold them. 

So, when men come with books, and creeds 
founded thereon, claiming for them a divine origi- 
nal, and that God has spoken thus and so to me, 
through Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Paul, Mahomet, 
Swedenborg, Joseph Smith ; and that these books 
and creeds contain the whole of divine truth, so 
much and no more, — I can truly say. Yes ; doubt- 
less, God has spoken all and more than all you 
claim ; and much that our little ears cannot hear, 
and which our small understandings cannot trans- 
late. For He speaks through the unbound and 
boundless volumes of Nature. Listen and learn, 
until your books and creeds sink into utter noth- 
ingness in the grandeur, magnificence, and beauty 
which she reveals. For as the mountains, oceans, 



26 TJie Problem of Life 

continents, rivers, seas, are only parts of the struc- 
ture of the earth, and the earth is only' an atom in 
the system of the universe, so are your books, 
creeds, theologies, hierarchies, but the minutest 
and crudest atoms in the grand system of infinite 
truth which God reveals to us through Nature. 

And thus we shall find that God includes all, 
comprehends all, and is the life and soul of all. 
And though unchangeable in his essence, he is the 
cause of all change ; and we may be helped to a 
better understanding of our relations to him, by 
a simple illustration. 

A blood-cell is born, lives, moves, and has its 
being, in man, and contains in itself the vital es- 
sences of his own being. And while succeeding 
generations of these cells are born, and their outer 
forms perish, their vital elements still live in him, 
— inside of him. They could not live outside of 
him. So we are born, live, move, and have our 
being, inside of God ; and contain in ourselves his 
vital and immortal essences, and are infolded and 
secure in his Infinite life ; and, of course, can no 
more get outside of him, to see and contemplate 
him as a personality, .than a blood-cell could get 
outside of a man, and live and study him. If a 
blood-cell is a conscious being, and wishes to find 
us out, it is in the best possible place to do that 
within us. So the best possible place to study 
God is within, and not outside of him. Indeed, 



And Immortality. 27 

we can study him nowhere else, as we are in, 
and cannot get outside of him. For I can con- 
ceive of no limitations to God, as to time and space. 
And so our ideas of now and tlien^ and here and 
there, have no application to him. For God in- 
cludes all where and when. To us, every thing from 
and outside of us is there, and every thing within 
or present to us is here. 

Now, as God includes infinite space, there is no 
place in the universe which is away frojn him, but 
all is within, and so here to him. So of now and 
then. As God includes infinite space, so all that 
to our finite minds has or ever shall come to pass 
in space is really present now to the Infinite 
mind. 

We sit before a panorama, with the whole paint- 
ing rolled up before us there in the future. The 
curtain rises, and the revelation begins. The can- 
vas unrolls, moves before us, and passes out of 
sight, into history. That which is unrolled in the 
future, and that which is rolled up in the past, 
still equally exist. Now, as the picture we have 
been examining in detail is all present to the eye 
of the artist, so is the infinite panorama of the 
universe, with all its past history and future re- 
vealings, present to the mind of God in one ever- 
lasting now. And we may study their infinite 
details in the eternity which is alike behind, 
around, and before us. 



28 The Problem of Life 

Let us carry our illustration farther. Suppose 
a man to represent the universe, with his blood-cells 
for planets, or worlds, and systems of worlds, circu- 
lating, wheeling, and revolving through his bodily 
spaces. Now, the blood-cell itself is a microscopic 
object to us. And yet we know it is full of vital 
activities, involving changes, processes, operations. 
Let us take these cells, circulating through man, 
to represent the stellar and solar systems, circulat- 
ing through the spaces of. the universe, and a 
single cell to represent our earth ; and let us sup- 
pose these vital activities and operations of the 
cell to be carried on by hundreds of millions of 
living beings, so infinitesimally small that no micro- 
scope can ever reveal them to us ; and whose period 
of existence is so short that they are born and die 
" ere thy watch tick twice." And yet their lives 
are as long to them as ours are to us. 

Let us suppose these beings to have govern- 
ments, wars, customs, laws, societies, — religious, 
social, scientific, reformatory. Nearly all of them 
are religious. They have a strong and over-mas- 
tering instinctive feeling of being related to an 
overruling power ; upon which they are somehow 
dependent ; and who, or which, they claim to have 
made revelations of himself to certain classes, 
tribes, or individuals in ancient times ; and upon 
which revelations they build faiths, systems, 
theologies, all conflicting in some things, yet all 



And Immortality. 29 

agreeing in one thing, to wit, the overruling 
power. 

Classes of scientific inquirers and investigators 
are found, to seek out, and if possible solve, the 
problems of their own being and relations. Some 
dig and bore into the crust of this blood-cell (world), 
to find out its age, and how it was formed. Some 
point their telescopes away to other cells (worlds), 
floating and circulating in these vast spaces ; cal- 
culate their orbits, what they are made of, how 
much they weigh, &c., &c. Some strain their 
eyes over microscopes. Some with lamps, cruci- 
bles, retorts, examine and analyze the materials 
around them, subjecting them to the most rigid 
tests. Some carefully examine lower orders of 
beings, and trace out analogies in these beings with 
themselves, and think possibly they may have 
descended from these ver}?- beings. 

In the course of their researches, they have satis- 
fied themselves that matter exists under numerous 
forms, because they can handle it, and subject it 
to their analyses. They believe in life and mind, 
because they live and think. But they cannot 
prove their existence by any of their accepted 
scientific methods ; and whether, after all, they are 
any thing more than forms of matter, and so are 
caused wholly by certain changes or combinations 
of matter, they cannot tell; although some of 
them are quite sure that their little chemistry and 



30 The Problem of Life 

microscopy will explain it all one of these days ; 
and so they look to their scientific methods for a 
solution of the whole prohlem. 

Meantime, some of the less wise among the re- 
ligious classes look with more or less perturbation 
upon all this investigation and analysis. They 
are afraid that somehow their cherished theories of 
God, worships, faiths, rituals, may be uprooted by 
these sharp and critical researches. And contro- 
versies arise between the religionists and the 
scientists. 

The religionist trusts to his faith, based in his 
intuitions, and fortified by his revelations. The 
scientist trusts to his investigations, based on the 
facts of Nature. He says to the religionist, 
" Prove me your God ; for I rest not in beliefs, but 
in demonstrations." The religionist answers : " I 
cannot prove God by your mechanical methods, for 
he is spirit ; and not to be weighed, or measured, 
or in any way limited, by your formularies ; but I 
know he is, for I feel him in my consciousness. 
And I know, further, that, if he were not, I could 
not be." 

And so the controversy goes on upon this little 
blood-cell, which still circulates and revolves. 
And both the contestants are right, each in his 
own way. The religionist as to the main ground 
of his belief, — intuition. The scientist in pushing 
his investigations; for he must ultimately land 



And Immortality. 31 

on the same ground with the religionist. And so 
science shall render a noble service in demonstrat- 
ing the true basis of intuition ; and religion itself 
shall be stripped of all supernaturalisms, and in- 
vested with the highest forms of practical and 
poetic beaut}'', goodness, and use. 

In our illustration, all this is supposed to be going 
on upon a blood-cell, circulating and revolving ih- 
side of a man. And some few of the beings there 
really doubt whether the universe (man) in which 
they live, move, and have their being, and from 
which they derive all their life and knowledge, is 
itself (liimself) really alive, and knows any thing. 

To leave supposition, and come to fact, all this 
time the man himself is pursuing his own objects ; 
searching out the mysteries of his own being and 
relations ; boring, analyzing, telescoping, micro- 
scoping, on one of the cells (planets) which circu- 
late and revolve through the infinite structure of 
the universe (God), and doubting whether there 
is any intelligence which orders, moves, and gov- 
erns all this wonderful mechanism. And let men 
doubt, until broader and more comprehensive 
methods of inquiry and investigation shall dem- 
onstrate the truth, that life and knowledge are not 
limited to material organic forms, but are bound- 
less as the universe. 

And herein also we discover the real -basis of 
intuitive religion, or the religion oi feeling. As 



32 The Problem of Life 

all our powers and capacities are derived from the 
Infinite, a cognition or consciousness of our origin 
goes into our structure with our formation, and is 
revealed to us there by imuard sense, or intuition. 
The finite feels . this relationship to the Infinite. 
And this feeling is proof to the inward sense ; 
although we cannot prove it to the outward sense, 
or the intellect, by any of our narrow mechanically 
scientific methods. And so we must apply spirit- 
ual testimonies to spiritual subjects, as material 
tests are not applicable. Hence genuine science 
can never quarrel with religion, but only with the 
dogmas and devices with which human ignorance 
has burdened it. 

Intuition is the childhood of religion. And we 
wrap it about with swaddling-clothes and ban- 
dages, or creeds, forms, and ceremonies, for the 
reason that we are not yet enough matured to re- 
ceive the truth naked, and for its own sake. 
Science, or knowledge, is the manhood of religion. 
And although manhood does not need, and so casts 
away, the bandages and small clothes, the forms 
and ceremonials of infancy, it cannot deny itself ; 
as science is nothing more than matured, or ful- 
filled and demonstrated intuition. 

And so intuition may be regarded as the geo- 
logy of religion; into whose deeps, science is 
now carrying her explorations, with feeble lamp 
and blazing torch. And the highest service 



And Immortality, 33 

which science can perform, will be to demonstrate 
the truth of intuitive religion to the understand- 
ing. And such must be the final result of all her 
researches and investigations. So that instead of 
intuition " giving place to science," as held to be the 
result of investigations by some, science shall only 
explain and confirm the impressions of intuition. 

One of the short-comings in all theologies lies 
in searching for God not only outside the human 
soul, where his special kingdom is, but as a person- 
ality, existing outside, separate from, and inde- 
pendent of. Nature herself. The human mind is 
forever seeking rest in its own definitions and lim- 
itations. Hence it has set up personal gods ; and, 
having no power to conceive of any thing beyond 
its own range of thought, has endowed them with 
its own finite passions, including anger, jealousy, 
and revenge. And this anger and jealousy have 
been chiefly towards man himself. As rude, un- 
cultured man was angry with and jealous of his 
fellows, so of course must his god be. And thus 
controversies have always existed between gods 
and man. Even the one God of the Jews and 
Christians is no exception to this rule. And so 
his anger must be pacified, his jealousy removed, 
and his favor propitiated with peaoe-off'erings, 
atonements, and sacrifices. 

Now, when men, as before suggested, contem- 
plate God as the Soul of the Universe, immanent in 



34 The Problem of Life 

every point of infinite space, as really alive and 
present there as we are alive and present in every 
part of our bodies, and infinitely more cognizant 
of what is done there than we can be of what is 
done in our bodies, so that really not a " sparrow 
can fall without his notice," and the " hairs of our 
heads" are truly "numbered," there will be an 
end of all intolerant and prescriptive theological 
dogmas. For all will see that the ideas of God must 
be as varied as are the various stand-points from 
which his children contemplate him; and so no 
man, or class, can monopolize a knowledge of him, 
as his deep mysteries are past finding out. 

And yet simple, honest, truth-seeking inquiry 
into the phenomena of Nature, with an earnest 
desire to find out the meanings and purposes of her 
processes and operations, may help to clear up and 
explain many things which now seem mysterious. 
And first and chiefest of all these phenomena, 
and that which most deeply interests .us, is the 
origin of our own being, with the uses of our 
bodily conditions and relations, and our ultimate 
destiny. And first in the order of inquiry comes 

THE GENESIS OF MAN. 

I have referred, I think, to sufficient proofs of 
an overruling Intelligence, operating through the 
processes, and causing the phenomena of the 
Universe. And I wish further to show that this 



And Immortality, 35 

Intelligence works with purpose, design, or end ; 
one of which, the formation of man, may be so well 
understood, as to an extent to satisfy the inquiring 
mind, that at least it has got on the right track. 

The first evidences that God works with a pur- 
pose in the formation of man, are seen in the fact 
that we are full of purposes and designs. And as 
something cannot come from nothing, effects can- 
not be greater than their causes, nor the parts of 
a thing greater than the whole, these designs and 
purposes of ours are "derived from and are only 
'continued forms of the operations of that which 
designed and purposed us. 

Now, all our designs and ends, from the least to 
the greatest, — whether building a hut, the Suez Ca- 
nal, or a railroad across the continent, — are carried 
on and reached through step-by-step processes. Take 
a familiar illustration : We have here a mass of 
silken cocoons, which we wish to weave into a 
beautiful fabric. We first put these crude balls of 
silk into warm water, so as to loosen and separate 
their adhering fibres. Then we stir them about 
with a stick, by which w.e catch up the ends of these 
loosened fibres, and draw them out in parallel lines, 
and wind them upon the reel, from which they are 
twisted into threads, wound upon spools, and at 
length, after many preparatory processes, carried to 
the loom, and woven into the ultimate texture. 

In this case the processes and the resulting tex- 



36 The Problem of Life 

ture are very simple. But suppose we wish to com- 
pound a fabric of silk, cotton, wool, mohair, and 
other material. We not only complicate our fabric, 
by so much as the number of materials entering 
into it, but we also complicate our machinery and 
processes to nearly the same extent. The more 
complex the structure, the more complex the means 
and appliances by which it is formed. And all 
these materials, means, and appliance^ involve de- 
sign, purpose, end. And as our lives and beings 
are but extensions and continuatipns of the Infi- 
nite life and being, these designs and purposes of* 
ours are only extensions or continuations of the 
designs and purposes of the wisdom and power 
which formed us. The statement, so far, is based 
on its own proofs. 

But I am not here anxious to prove design in 
the being of man, but rather to approximate a 
knowledge of what he is, and how he came to be 
such. And, in order to do this, we must treat 
ourselves by the same methods we employ when we 
wish to find out what any other compound is made 
of, and how it is made. And, in order to do this, 
we analyze it ; and, by separating its constituents, 
we can find out what elements enter into its struc- 
ture. Thus we could separate the silk, cotton, 
wool, &c., in our fabric, into their simple elements, 
and, by examining the machinery, find out how 
they were compounded. So of other compounds. 



And Immortality. 37 

We find copper and zinc in brass ; hydrogen and 
oxygen in water ; and in some bodies a great 
variety of substances. And these substances carry 
their essences into combination, so as to make up 
the new compound; and analysis will generally 
enable us to trace out and discover these elements. 
What is true in art, and the inorganic, is equally 
true and as easily discovered in the organic world. 
Nearly all, if not all, animal bodies are composed of 
the same elements. The albumen in the body of a 
fish, reptile, bird, mammal, is the same as in the 
body of man. So of the lime in their bones, and of 
other elements which enter into their structures. 
Yet the body of man is, doubtless, composed of the 
most refined as well as the greatest number of 
simple substances. In other words, it is more 
complex and perfect than any other living struc- 
ture. Yet if we should thoroughly analyze the 
body of man, and those of other beings, we should 
find that no element exists in the human body 
which may not be found in the bodies of other ani- 
mals ; only the elements in his body are more re- 
fined and clarified than in theirs. What is true of 
material is equally true and as easily shown in 
spiritual things. All the passions and mental, 
qualities of the human soul may be found to exist 
in partial combination, or as separate and distinc- 
tive attributes, in the lower animals. And my 
present 



38 The Problem of Life 

PROPOSITION 

is, that before man was created, as a separate, dis- 
tinctive being, all the materials of which he is 
composed were elaborated, developed, and carried 
through long preparatory processes in the lives and 
organic forms of all the beings below him ; begin- 
ning with the simple vegetable cell, and thence 
upward. 

And here I must take the liberty of applying 
my own definitions to my own subject ; especially, 
as I believe them to be generally received among 
thinkers. 

By " creation,^' I mean simply formation ; and 
by " death," or " destruction," merely separation, 
or disintegration. 

By " man," I mean the whole of his spiritual 
being; and so of all other animals. His and 
their bodies I regard merely as organic structures, 
machines, or implements; which serve tempo- 
rary and incidental purposes, and which are va- 
cated and disintegrated for other uses, whenever the 
ends for which they were formed have been accom- 
plished ; and sometimes, doubtless, they are cast off 
in failing of that end. 

By "nature," I mean all the phenomena of the 
Universe, which are but the aggregate of God's 
methods and processes. 

I cannot believe that the wonderful .soul of man 
is a new creation out of wholly raw material. But 



Ajid Immortality. 39 

I can believe, on the evidence which appears, that 
this soul was, and continues to be, composed of 
spiritual elements, which have passed through long 
and infinitely varied transforming, purifying, and 
preparatory processes, in the lives and organic 
forms of all inferior beings. 

And I can also believe, that whenever, wherever, 
and in however so many places, on whatever conti- 
nents or islands, the preparatoiy steps were taken, 
and the materials were ready for his formation, he 
was formed ; with all that inherently and essen- 
tially, as to his capacities and possibilities, consti- 
tutes him man ; as much and completely a man 
at the beginning, as he is now. 

I do not wish to be understood as opposing "the 
development theory." On the contrary, I most 
fully believe it ; and so am trying to explain and 
elucidate the theory, by going behind and deeper 
than mere organic forms and structures, and 
showing, if possible, that these structures are all 
subservient to an end. And with that economy 
of force and method which characterizes all the 
operations of Nature, she limits her organic forms 
to the required ends. And when an order of 
beings is formed, — I use the term order in a liberal 
and not technical sense, — she requires that order 
to do a certain work, and serve a certain end in her 
economies ; and when she wants other work done, 
and other ends served, she prepares her instru- 



40 The Problem of Life 

ments to serve them. And whenever any end has 
heen accomplished in her grand laboratory, and 
she has no further need of the particular order 
which served that end, she extinguishes it. And if 
she needs a new order or species in her methods 
or operations, she forms it; but does not transform 
the old, except by absolute disintegration, and re- 
formation into new. And so old orders and species 
have become extinct, and new ones formed. 

But is there anywhere the slightest proof that 
the old species have become extinct by being 
transformed into new ones ? If so, this transfor- 
mation must have been, on Mr. Darwin's showing, 
very slow ; involvin,g at least " ten thousand gen- 
erations " to produce " only well-marked varieties." 
And if in the course of a hundred thousand gen- 
erations a new genus is formed, not to say order 
or class, numerous generations of these partly 
transformed beings in all the various stages of 
their transformations must have left their bones 
somewhere among the organic remains of the past. 
For the theory of material organic " develop- 
ment," in order to be complete, and good for any 
thing, must cover the whole ground, and include 
transformation of genus, order, and class, as well 
as " species ; " so that by continued transforma- 
tions of lower into higher, man shall be at length 
evolved through these gradual and long-continued 
changes. And this theory not only involves the 



And Immortality, 41 

transformation of the organic structure of fisli into 
reptile, but of reptile into bird, and of bird into 
mammal, upward to man. (" Descent of Man," pp. 
203-4.) Now, it would require numberless gene- 
rations of this slow transforming process to con- 
vert the highest ape into man; and innumerable 
generations of these partially transformed beings 
must have died, and left their traces behind. If 
such beings ever existed, where are the evidences ? 
Again : If men were primarily transformed from 
apes, then were apes transformed from the next 
lower order in the class, and so on, downward. And 
if man originated through transformations of or- 
ganic structures, he is certainly not so continued : 
for a practical application of the theory of organic 
transformations would require that apes should 
now be converted into men, as in the past: and 
they certainly are not. In the past, on this theory, 
apes were only partly-formed, or immature men, 
which at length became complete men through 
tran storm ation. In the present what are apes ? 
Are they now converted, or to be converted, into 
men as in the past ? If man primarily came from 
apes, why does he not come so now ? or, if apes 
ever were converted into men, why are they not so 
converted now ? and if not now, were they ever so 
converted? if not so converted, what becomes of 
them ? Of course they live and die apes, and noth- 
ing else. 



42 The Problem of Life 

In all the present modes of animal transforma- 
tions witli which we are familiar, the being is first 
^g^^ then larva, then pupa, and last imago, — per- 
fected being. Now, the animal is essentially the 
same being, existing under different forms, in all 
of these states. And yet it is capable of repro- 
duction in only one, the last of them. And we do 
not know of the absolute transformation of any 
animal after it has attained the , power of repro- 
duction ; as this power belongs only to the per- 
fected state. 

Now, the theory of transformations, set up and 
sought to be maintained by Darwin, Huxley, and 
others, regards man as the imago, or perfected state, 
of all the classes, orders, genera, &c., of the beings 
below him ; and all these beings are essentially 
men ; that is, one and the same being in different 
states of unfoldment. So that the transformations 
instead of being only three, as in other beings, are, 
in the case of man, on this theory, innumerable. 
And yet every one of these beings, from the simple 
cell upwards, through the numberless forms of 
vegetable, insect, fish, reptile, bird, and mammal 
life, is capable of generating and reproducing its 
kind, and its kind only. 

Hence it follows, according to all natural law, 
that every one of these classes, orders, genera, are, 
each and all, so far as their organic forms go, per- 
fected beings ; and never were, and never will be, 



Ajtd Immortality. 43 

transformed from one into the other, in the man- 
ner attempted to be proved. 

For it seems to me that the theory of develop- 
ment through organic transformations, which cul- 
minated in the formation of man, must regard 
him as being in some ages past the imago of the 
innumerable transformations of the same being ; 
and, after the whole chain of transformations was 
completed, it was again broken up into the origi- 
nal innumerable links, each of which now belongs 
to a separate and distinct class, order, or genera of 
beings ; and each of which can reproduce its kind, 
and no other. As if after the butterfly had been 
formed, each state in the order of unfolding — 
^g%^ larva, pupa, and imago — should become sever* 
all}'' independent of each other, so that each should 
become a distinct and separate being, live an in- 
dividual life, and each generate after its kind, 
without any relation to or dependence upon the 
other. Eggs continue to generate eggs, larva 
generate larva, pupa, pupa, and so on. 

Again : Mr. Darwin says, — " Origin of Species," 
p. 27, — " Great as the differences are between the 
breeds of pigeons, I am convinced that all have 
descended from the rock-pigeon. '^ Yes : but with all 
their differences they are all pigeons still. But 
will any one here argue that the rock-pigeon de- 
scended from the crow, or ever has been, or may 
be, transformed into the crow or raven ? 



44 ^'^^ Pi'oblem of Life 

There are as great differences -in the breeds of 
hens ; but will anybody contend that they ever 
descended from any thing but the hen ? and that 
they may possibly have been transformed from 
ducks or geese ? 

So of mammals. The common pig " is supposed 
to be descended from the wild hoar,^^ but he exists 
in almost endless variety. Yet not one of them all 
ever descended from the sheep, or will be trans- 
formed into a sheep. 

The dogs, in all their numberless varieties, may 
have descended from the ivolf, or jackal, or both. 
But who will venture the affirmation that they 
ever descended from the lynx or the leopard, or 
will ever be converted into one or the other ? 

If such transformations were possible under the 
laws of natural descent, we can readily see what 
might follow. There might be, and would be, 
utter confusion throughout the whole of animated 
nature ; for if it were possible to transform pigeon 
into raven, he might also be transformed into an 
eagle or a swan, and even break over the barrier 
into the higher class of mammals ; and here, also, 
" chaos might come again." For these transforma- 
tions would not be sudden, but continued through 
innumerable generations. And what a conglom- 
erate of life would be here ! No : it seems to me, — 
so it seems, — according to natural law, and the 
facts agreeing therewith, that pigeons were always 



And Immortality. 45 

pigeons, and never were, and never will be, any- 
thing else : and so of all classes, orders, species. 
Produce as many varieties as you will, they are 
still the same species. 

If the transformations contended for have ever 
taken place, when, where, and why have they 
ceased ? or have they not ceased ? and if not, why 
may not man himself be transformed into a new 
and higher class, or a higher order in the class ? 

I raise these questions and difficulties for the 
purpose of suggesting the most thorough and rigid 
examination of this subject. And while I accept 
the theory of development in its vital and spiritual 
forms and relations, its material and organic form 
of statement presents to my mind insuperable diffi- 
culties and objections. In other words, I believe 
the theory true in spirit, and untrue only in form 
or method. 

And so I do not believe that in and through the 
innumerable ages of the past, man Jias slowly wrig- 
gled his way upwards from fish to reptile, and 
glided thence into bird, and flown about on wings, 
and then down upon all fours in the mammal, and 
then partly up again through troglodyte apes, 
and thence by some mysterious transformation of 
structure each ape is changed into a man ; either 
through " natural," " sexual," or other " selec- 
tion," and leaving behind him no traces or " links " 
by which we can follow out these marvellous transi- 



46 The Problem of Life 

tions. And yet there is no living animal whose 
organic form and mental endowments do not 
somehow furnish hintS; nay more, proofs, of its 
relations to man. 

And yet there stands, and has stood, from age to 
age, that unrepealed and unrepealable physiologi- 
cal law, established by the Creator in every living 
being, which forbids one order from meeting and 
combining half-way with another order ; and so, at 
length, confusing the whole of organic life into 
one conglomerate mass, and thus defeating the 
end which the formation of all these creatures is 
intended to reach. And so all the various classes, 
orders, genera, with their numerous divisions and 
sub-divisions, are kept aJb their distinct and separate 
occupations and uses, after the most approved and 
economical methods of division of labor; while 
man is the same being all over the earth, — as 
the squat-figured Esquimaux of the poles, the 
flat-nosed, black-skinned negro of the tropics, are 
in all essentials as really men, have been from 
the beginning, and will be to the end, if there 
be an end, as the enlightened and cultured Cau- 
casian of the temperate regions. And there has 
yet been discovered no physiological bar to their 
successful crossing and re-crossing, from the same 
beginning to the same end. 

As helping to illustrate this subject, we may re- 
gard the earth, with its surrounding atmosphere, 



And Immortality. 47 

as one vast laboratory, with its foundries, forges, 
alembics, crucibles, and all the endless parapher- 
nalia of vital mechanisms ; with all living beings 
as the operatives ; * where God carries on the work 
of forming" the human soul, and fitting it for im- 
mortal, individualized consciousness. And this im- 
mortal, conscious man is the end to which all the 
lower forms of life tend, and which they are des- 
tined to reach, by merging and fusing the lesser 
into one compound, to form the greater ; and thus 
having their own lives, characteristics, and con- 
sciousness lost as separate beings in forming his. 

The theory here proposed does not deny, but on 
the contrary affirms, that the ape helps to form 
man ; but it holds that no one ape, nor all apes 
combined, contain in themselves the elements of 
character in sufficient number and variety to form 
the basis of one man. Take, as an illustration, the 
gorilla. No doubt his ferocity, or aggressive and 
defensive qualities, are equal, perhaps greater in 
quantity, than in man ; and his physical strength is 
certainly greater. And yet he lacks judgment, 
discretion, the power of combination or invention ; 
and so the development of whatever qualities the 
whole species has will never amount to more than 
the fragments of a man. 

The bodily structures of all other animals will 
not enable them to perform what the bodily struc- 
ture of man enables him to perform. Nor do the 



48 ' The Problem of Life 

minds of all animated creatures below man enable 
them to ascend to the mental heights of one man. 
Yet should all the mental qualities and powers of 
all the lower animals be combined, united, and 
brought into harmonious consciousness in one race, 
we should doubtless find in that one race all the 
elements, capacities, and possibilities of man. In- 
deed, we should have man, as the result of such a 
combination. 

In tracing the origin of man, or his " descent " 
from the lower animals, Mr. Darwin finds a " vast 
chasm" between the highest ape and the lowest 
savage man. This " chasm" would be made still 
more apparent, by placing the young of the high- 
est ape, and a child of the savage, immediately 
after birth, under the best possible conditions of 
education and culture. For, while the natural 
capacity of one would limit his development to a 
well-trained ape, the natural capacity of the other 
would in no way hinder his development into a 
philosopher, fully equal, if not superior, to Darwin 
himself. And for this reason : that while the ape 
combines only the mental qualities of his race, 
man combines in himself, not only the mental 
qualities of the ape, but Of all other living beings 
below him, which combination gives him almost 
unlimited capacity for development. 

Were it possible to put the soul of a dog, or of the 
highest ape, into -the body of a man, or to clothe 



Afzd Immortality, 49 

them in human form, the one would "down upon 
all fours/' and the other would still be an ape, 
except in outward form. 

It will be seen, that, in my methods of treating 
this subject, I am dealing, according to my poor 
ability, with its essential or spiritual facts. For 
science is really spiritual. A rock is not science ; 
but knoivledge of the rock, according to our defini- 
tion, is, whether it be Granite, Gneiss, Sienite, or 
Sandstone. So of chemistry, botany, and the rest. 
Knowledge of these things is alone the science of 
them'. And this is wholly spiritual. And so real 
science goes deeper than mere appearances, or 
phenomena : it seeks for the unseen thoughts and 
forces which cause all outward appearances. 

In all her formative operations, Nature reaches 
her results through orderly and methodical steps, 
or processes. And this would clearly indicate, that, 
humanly speaking, she has an end in view. All 
her organic structures, not excepting the human 
body, are outlined and developed by the arrange- 
ment and combination of simple cells. Now, the 
cell is only the material clothing or vehicle of the 
primitive form of life and mind. And, if it were 
possible to analyze the infinitely complex texture 
of the human soul, we should doubtless find that 
its minutest living fibre was first — to use a fig- 
ure — spun through a vegetable cell. And as the 
silken fibre is something quite different from the 



50 The Problem of Life 

meclianisin bjt which it is separated from, tlie co- 
coon, wound upon the reel, and at length, through 
many mechanical appliances, woven into the ulti- 
mate texture, so is the life of the cell even more 
different from the various material organic forms 
through which it passes, in numberless transforma- 
tions and combinations, in the ascending scale of 
progress, until it ultimates, as a minute factor, in 
the life and mind of man. 

Passing over the preparatory steps necessary to 
the formation of animals, it is sufficient for our 
present inquiry to assume, that man could not have 
existed until both the material and spiritual pab- 
ula were ready for his formation. 

I have presented, I think, sufficient proofs of 
God, as the overruling intelligence of the universe. 
Now, man evidently existed, primarily, as an ideal 
in the Divine mind, to be wrought out ; as an 
ideal which we desire to work out exists prima- 
rily in our mind : and we all know the natural 
way in which the Divine mind reaches results. 
Man is a result ; the highest we can comprehend 
— if indeed he be comprehensible — in the uni- 
verse. I believe there was a time when, as an 
individualized, conscious being, he did not exist. 
And yet the materials of which he is composed 
did, do, always exist. The Divine mind sees 
man as a result to be attained, and sets the pro- 
cesses in operation. And all the processes are 



I 



And Immortality. 5 1 

governed by ideals, planted as germs in the mate- 
rial through which any spiritual attribute or qual- 
ity is to be prepared as a factor, in the production 
of this result. 

The bark, woody fibre, leaves, or even the sap 
of trees, do not determine that one shall be oak, 
one maple, another pine ; but the sap itself is se- 
lected and eliminated by pre-determining spiritual 
ideas or forces in their germs, which clothe the 
oak, maple, or pine elements, in the outward forms 
and materials corresponding to the requirements 
of their vital essences, and the ends they are to 
serve in the economy of progress. And this law 
will be found on the most rigid examination to 
apply to all the forms of animal life, including 
man. 

The physical structures of a bee, eel, frog, pi- 
geon, dog, chimpanzee, or any other creature, are 
governed in their formation by the qualities or 
characteristics of the mind and passion which they 
are required to develop. And all these creatures, 
it is reasonable to believe, elaborate and prepare 
the spiritual elements which enter into our own 
structures. And through what countless ages has 
this earth, as a seething-pot and laboratory, been 
preparing materials for vegetable life ! And these 
preparatory processes are only steps towards the 
higher development of animal life; which, at 
length, after other countless ages of preparation, 



$2 The Problem of Life 

unfolds in immortal consciousness in the human 
soul. 

Man being the result which God reaches through 
the operations of nature, a slight examination of 
the characteristics of different animals will go to 
strengthen the theory, that the qualities of the 
human mind are first prepared and developed in 
them. I know there are some thinkers who hold 
the opposite view, — that the mental characteris- 
tics of animals are first developed in man. Crea- 
tion, they say, descends. But I cannot accept this 
view. For on examining the formative processes 
in vegetable life, we discover that all complex forms 
are made up by the unioji of simple cells. And 
the science of histology shows us further, that 
this is true of animal formations. The higher do 
not separate into fragments to form the lower, in 
any form of organic life. Por disintegration is 
weakness and death ; while union is strength and 
life. All the lower forms of organic life are in- 
complete ; and incompleteness is not the end, but 
only means to the end. The end is the constitu- 
tion of man. And the union of the elements, 
developed in and through these lower beings, in 
the spiritual organism of man, make up his con- 
stitution. 

Yet all the lower animals are perfect and com- 
plete as to themselves ; while relatively they are 
only parts of something greater than themselves. 



i 



And Immortality. 53 

A brace in a building is a complete brace, but it 
is only a small part of a building. Spring, screw, 
wheel, &c., may be all complete as such ; but they 
must be all combined to make a complete watch. 
So of any other mechanical structure : all the 
parts must be brought into harmonious relations 
in one mechanism, in order to accomplish any 
given work. 

So a beetle, dog, ape, may be all perfect and 
complete as such ; but it is only when the qualities 
of them all are combined in one structure, man, 
that something is produced which can really 
begin and carry on the work of subduing and cul- 
tivating the earth, and also of subduing and culti- 
vating himself. 

A few illustrations will help make this apparent. 
In the pursuits and occupations of life, different 
men have aptitudes for different pursuits and oc- 
cupations : and we shall find, on examination, that 
the same distinguishing traits are largely charac- 
teristics of different lower animals. 

Some insects and mammals, such as crickets, 
moles, and many others, are miners ; so are men. 
Some are daubers, masons, or plasterers.; as wasps, 
swallows. Some are builders ; such as ants, bea- 
vers, and many birds. Some are mathematicians ; 
as bees, wasps, spiders. Some are spinners and 
spoolers; as silkworms, and other caterpillars. 
Some are weavers ; as other caterpillars, and spi- 



54 l^he Problem of Life 

ders. Some are sailors and navigators ; as the 
nautilus, and aquatic birds : while a very large 
share are hunters on the land, and in the sea and 
air, and therein, approximating nearer to the 
habits of man while in his ruder and less culti- 
vated state. 

But the absolute indentity of mental and moral, 
or passional endowments in the lower animals and 
man, make the evidences in favor of our theory 
almost, if not quite, absolute proofs. 

How does the skilled naturalist know that a 
certain kind of scale came from a certain kind of 
fish, although he may never have seen the fish 
from which it was taken ? Because he has seen 
just that kind of scale on just such a fish ; and 
knows, further, that it has never been found on any 
other. By the same reasoning we know that the 
silk in our texture is the same as that found 
upon the cocoon; although we may never have 
seen it unreeled and woven into the fabric. 

Now let us apply this mode of reasoning to our 
subject. Who by the most rigid analysis can dis- 
cover any essential difference in the love, friend- 
ship, devotion, in a dog, and these sentiments in 
man ; or that they are not one and the same thing 
in both ? Can any one show that there is the 
slightest difference in the essence of ferocity in an 
enraged tiger, gorilla, and man ? The cunning 
and shrewdness in a fox are precisely the same in 



And Immortality. 55 

essence as in man. So of pride, ambition, in the 
horse ; of memory in all animals ; of distrust, sus- 
picion, in the cat. The combativeness in any 
number of fighting cocks is precisely the same as 
in any number of human pugilists ; all of whom 
seem to fight from a mere love of getting some- 
body else down, and being themselves uppermost. 
And the love of display in the peacock crops out 
in full-feathered glory in human dandies of both 
sexes. And misers and hoarders may surely find 
their originals in jays and crows ; and thieves, bur- 
glars, robbers, and plunderers in general, will find 
their nearest relatives in nocturnal beasts and 
birds of prey. The love, tenderness, devotion, and 
care for their young in nearly all animals, and the 
grief at their loss, which is excessive in some, 
differ in no essential particular from the same emo- 
tions in man. So of the sympathy which animals 
have for each other in danger, as shown by the 
warnings and outcries which they utter as signals. 
And many, as monkeys and baboons, will fight in 
troops and armies against a common enemy. And 
wherein does. the spirit of playfulness, sportiveness, 
amusement, differ in essence in animals and man ? 
But I find in Darwin's " Descent of Man," vol. i. 
p. 180, a condensed account of the mental quali- 
ties of one little creature, which are so intensely 
human that I give the passage entire. 

" Ants communicate information to each other, 



56 The Problem of Life 

and several unite for the same work, or games of 
play. Tliey recognize tlieir fellow-ants aftel 
months of absence. They build great edifices, 
keep them clean, close the doors in the evening, 
and post sentries. They make roads, and even 
tunnels under rivers. They collect food for the 
community; and when an object too large for 
entrance is brought to the nest, they enlarge the 
door, and afterwards build it up again. They go 
out to battle in regular bands ; and frequently 
sacrifice their lives for the common weal. They 
emigrate in accordance with a preconcerted plan. 
They capture slaves. They keep aphides as milk- 
cows. They move the eggs of their aphides, as well 
as their own, and cocoons into warm parts of the 
nest, in order that they may be quickly hatched. 
And endless similar facts could be given." 

But I need not multiply testimony on this point: 
the list of witnesses is a very long one, and who- 
ever wishes to examine further can do so. I have 
enough for my present purpose. 

Here, then, we find the same elements of char- 
acter, all combined in man, that we find chiefly 
distributed as characteristic attributes throughout 
the whole lower range of animal life. And before pro- 
ceeding to explain how this combination might take 
place, I wish to present a few thoughts, which may 
possibly suggest further inquiry as to the possible 
conditions of original, or 



And Immortality, 57 

PRIMEVAL FORMATION. 

I have stated the opinion, that when all the 
materials for the formation of man were prepared 
and ready, he was formed ; a complete, perfect- 
ed man, as to his material structure, and men- 
tal and moral capacities and possibilities. And 
the question arises. How was he so perfectly- 
formed at the outset ? 

I can only say, certainly and absolutely, that 
here he is, with both ends in the chain of his be- 
ing linked to the Infinite. But by what processes 
the separate links were formed, 

** In what a forge, at what a heat/ 

I can only venture an hypothesis. All the pre- 
paratory steps were taken so long before his own 
formation ; and as man was the last formed of all 
beings, and so the great chain of being was com- 
pleted in him ; and he himself was formed so 
long before his own powers and capacities were un- 
folded to full self-cognition and the comprehension 
of surrounding objects, — that it was, and is, impos- 
sible to watch or study the process of each suc- 
cessive formation, or to trace out their steps except 
by dim analogies. 

Geologists tell us, and other scientists agree, 
that great and wonderful changes have taken 
place on and in this earth during the long ages 
past. And her rent and tilted rocks, rugged 



58 The Problem of Life 

mountains, ragged coasts and islands, testify to 
seethings, surgings, boilings, upheavals, convul- 
sions, in her early formative periods. And earth- 
quake and volcano bear witness that the throes 
and agonies of her travails have not yet folly 
ended. During all these periods of labor and travail, 
it is not unreasonable to believe that the forma- 
tive Spirit brooded over, and wrought order and 
living organic forms out of, all this wild chaos ; 
the development of successive and higher forms 
keeping pace with the successive periods of the 
earth's development, and progress towards matu- 
rity. 

The doctrine of " spontaneous generation " is by 
no means a settled " canon " among naturalists ; 
merely for the reason that they have not found 
out whether it is true. And then, are we settled 
as to the meaning of " spontaneous," in this con- 
nection? If it means generation without cause, 
it cannot be true ; but if it means generation from 
causes operating within certain materials, without 
the intervention of exterior material organic agen- 
cy, then I believe it is and was true, from the 
beginning. 

For if the doctrine of the geologists — that this 
earth was once a heated, moltea mass of surging, 
flaming, boiling mineral substances, and, of course, 
too hot and otherwise unfitted for the habitation 
of any living being ; and that it was not until its 



And Immortality, 59 

surface had cooled, and hardened into a crust, that 
any living being could exist on it — be true, then 
spontaneous generation must furnish the only so- 
lution to the problem of the origin of organic life 
on this planet. 

For it certainly will not be contended that the 
germs of any organic beings whatever were im- 
ported from beyond the planet ; and so they must 
have originated upon it, whenever the necessary 
conditions were attained. And so we may as well 
decide the old puzzle here, by affirming that the 
first hen came from an egg, against the proposition 
that the first ^^^ came from a hen. A thing is 
done. It could have been done in this way : it 
could not have been done in any other. It was, or 
is; done in this. 

I have shown that we begin our works with 
ideals, or mental conceptions ; and that, in this, we 
but work after the Divine methods from mere in- 
tuitive imitation. We clothe our conceptions in 
material forms. So does the First Cause. When the 
surface of the earth had cooled and hardened, and 
the active forces of the Infinite Life in and around 
it, in the forms of light, heat, water, air, had 
eroded, pulverized, triturated, and mellowed it so 
as to form a protoplasm, then God clothed his liv- 
ing conceptions in this plastic material, — the sim- 
plest first; and as these were matured, and the 
basis prepared for higher, then the higher and 



6o The Problem of Life 

more complex. And so tlie work of forming 
higher and higher organic beings went on, until at 
length all was ready, and man was formed, in all 
but his culture and refinement, as he is now. 

The conception of each class and order of 
beings includes, as a result of their vital activities, 
the conception and. transmission of other beings 
like themselves, to continue and carry on the 
work of all succeeding formations. 

Geology reveals to us the fossil remains of great 
fish-like saurians, or lizards, which probably crawled 
out of the slime and mud of their primeval forma- 
tion, filled with the germs of other beings like 
themselves. So of other beings, as high in the 
scale of life as the mammal, whose huge bones 
are preserved in museums as marvels of prehis- 
toric ages. But as primeval man did not originate 
as early as the fossiliferous periods, no remains of 
him can be found there. 

I know there are some who claim that fossil 
remains of men have been found, with those of 
extinct races of animals, in the cave of Engis in 
Belgium, and the Neanderthal cave in Germany. 
But Mr. Huxley, after a very careful " anatomical 
examination of the bones," arrives at th§ conclu- 
sion "that it was beyond a doubt that these 
human relics were traceable to a period at which 
the latest animals of the diluvium existed; but 
that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently 



I 



And Immortality. 6i 

of tlieir so termed /osszY conclitiorij was afforded by 
the circumstance under which the bones were 
discovered." — Man^s Place in Nature, p. 150. 

But suppose we grant that these bones are fos- 
sil : they are none the less human on that ac- 
count, and so it does not follow that they are the 
bones of an animal occupying an intermediate 
place between ape and man. And this is fiilly 
admitted by the same intelligent and careful in- 
vestigator farther on. For he closes his examina- 
tion with this statement in regard to the Engis 
skull : " It is, in fact, a fair average human 
skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, 
or might have contained the thoughtless brains of 
a savage" (p. 181). And of the other he says, 
" The Neanderthal skull is by no means so iso- 
lated as it appears to be at first, but forms, in 
reality, the extreme term of a series leading 
gradually from it to the highest and best-developed 
human crania" (p. 183). 

And so the original germs of man may as well, 
and indeed must, have been conceived and unfolded 
in the soft matrix of plastic material, by his Cre- 
ator, in sheltered and protected places, surrounded 
with all friendly conditions, where the work of out- 
lining, filling up, and maturing his structure was 
completed ; and he opened his eyes upon a world 
of life and beauty around him, and contained in 
himself the promise and the fulfilment of all fu* 
ture generations. 



62 The Problem of Life 

Would the saurians and other creatures have 
eaten him up ? Nature knows how to care for her 
children, until they can care for themselves. 

Indeed, as all the qualities of all beings are 
derived from her, the care of all parents for their 
young is but the extension and continuation of the 
care of Nature. She transmits this care and devo- 
tion, through her first offspring, onward from gen- 
eration to generation. So that the love and ten- 
derness of parents for offspring are only the forms 
in which Nature manifests her own calre and ten- 
derness, through these parental relations. And 
so the Divine love finds its most immediate and 
practical expression through human love. 

Do I mean here to assume the possibility, that a 
conception of the Divine mind, planted in, and 
surrounded by, the fitting plastic materials, with- 
out the intervention of other parent forms, may be 
able, or ever has been able, under natural stimuli, 
to outline, fill up, and mature, a living, breathing, 
organic being, capable of sustaining an independent 
life, and of planting germs or conceptions of other 
beings like itself in other protoplasms, which shall 
again unfold, mature, and so keep up the race ? 

I do assume such possibility. For, in the first 
place, I see, at present, no other way in which to 
account for or explain primary organic formations ; 
and, in the second place, the analogies of present 
natural genesis support this assumption. 



And Immortality, 63 

The conceptions of all living beings, from low- 
est to highest, are now pRinted in such protoplasm, 
and so unfold. It is time, with the interven- 
tion of parent forms. But the only possible mode 
of primitive formations shows that such interven- 
tion is not absolutely necessary, but only conve- 
nient ; and also a means of developing, cultivating, 
and maintaining the highest and holiest social 
relations and enjoyments, which relations could not 
hav'3 existed prior to the existence of living be- 
ings. The eggs of birds and reptiles furnish us 
with the best illustrations. The contents of the 
shells are the plastic materials, in which the ideals, 
or germs, are planted; the shells merely serve the 
purposes of protection and holding the materials 
together ; while in many fishes and reptiles, 
which deposit their ova in water, no .shell is 
needed, and none is present, but only a delicate 
transparent membrane. 

I have just stated that the fact of the present 
intervention of parent forms in the process of gen- 
eration does not necessarily involve their original 
intervention. 

We manufacture watches, sewing-machines, 
&c., by machinery. We first employed tools to 
make this machinery. But, when we have got our 
machinery in running order, we throw our original 
tools aside. So when all the vital mechanisms in 
the economies of organic life are in complete, sue- 



64 The Problem of Life 

cessful, and perfect operation, there is no need of 
recurring to primeval methods. It is true that 
our dead machines cannot reproduce their kind ; 
but Nature's living organisms can. - 

How could it be possible for a saurian to be 
formed in this matrix of water, slime, and mud, 
with no other parent than brooding, nursing Nature, 
in her earlier formative stages, so as to live, and 
continue the functions of a living being ? 

I assume that the process in his primitive is, 
was, the same, in all essentials, as the process in all 
formations since ; and is well illustrated in the for- 
mation of all other beings now, among which 
the common fowl gives us a good and familiar 
example. ^ 

I have spoken of the contents of the shell as 
plastic material, or protoplasm. What we can see, 
here, is albumen, yelk, and germinal vesicle, with 
its germinal spot ; and this " spot " contains, 
though invisible, the conception of the whole be- 
ing ; and this " conception " is the living idea, or 
thought, which directs and governs the whole form- 
ative process. Under the stimulus of heat, its 
dormant powers are awakened into activity, and 
the vital forces in the protoplasm are set at work, 
the conception presiding as formative genius, or 
master-builder. 

And first an elongated, " pellucid area " is drawn 
about the germinal vesicle, and then a delicate 



Ajid Immortality. 65 

wliitisli line, or "primitive trace," or "streak," is 
drawn lengthwise, partly through this " area." 
And this streak tells where the central axis, or 
back-bone, of the being is to be formed. Then, 
outside of this pellucid area, little cells arrange 
tliemselves in curling and interlacing lines, all 
around it ; and then stretch out and lengthen un- 
til they touch each other ; and then form into mi- 
nute tubes, which are the rudimental blood-vessels. 
And soon the blood begins to form in them. 
About the same time the heart begins to form, and 
soon unites with the blood-vessels ; and the pulsa- 
tions and circulation commence in earnest. The 
blood-vessels soon ramify and interlace all over the 
yelk, and the formative process is in full operation. 
The head is formed ; and then the limbs push, or 
bud out from the body, after the manner of limbs 
from the trunk of a young and growing tree. And 
so the work goes on, until the whole being is out- 
lined, filled up, and completecl ; and the contents 
of the shell wrought into a Imng, breathing bird, 
which can pick up and digest its own food. And 
all these processes of development can go on as 
well without the intervention of the parent as 
with it. 

The albumen, fatty matters, all the materials of 
which this bird is formed, exist, and have existed, 
in the storehouses of Nature, from the first vege- 
table formation, outside of egg-shells ; and shells, 



66 The Problem of Life 

or even membranous coverings, are not necessary 
to their existence. 

Now, I hold it to have been, and to be, possible, 
during the preparatory stages of development, 
while the vital machinery of this earthy laboratory 
was, or is, being made, and put in running order, 
during the process of mixing, compounding, and 
preparing its numerous materials, for the forma- 
tive spirit to accumulate enough of this albumen, 
and other substances, in fitting place, so as to form 
protoplasm, surrounded by fitting conditions, and 
plant the conceptions therein. And then, under 
natural stimuli, to set processes in operation, pre- 
cisely as in the case of the bird ; from the " pellu- 
cid area," draw the ^' primitive trace," weave the 
"vascular area" about the "whole by the conjunction 
of cells, make and set the heart in operation, and 
so outline, fill up, and complete the whole struc- 
ture. And if a lizard could be so formed, so 
could an elephant, and so could man. 

But we have never seen any beings so formed. 
True, we have not. We enter a factory, and see its 
machinery in running order and at work. We 
examine it in all its parts and details; but, al- 
though we see how the machinery operates, we do 
not see how the machinery itself was made, as it 
was already made and in operation when we en- 
tered the building. 

So we entered this grand factory of Nature, 



And Immortality. 67 

consciously, as students and learners, long after its 
vital machinery was made and in operation, and 
of course could take no note of the methods by 
which it was originally formed. Yet the forces of 
Nature, although unseen by us, now, as at the 
first, keep all this machinery in constant operation. 
When we examine the machinery in a factory, and 
see its complicated and harmonious action, we 
know that all this mechanism, through all its ex- 
tent, is belted, geared, or somehow connected with 
a motive-power, although this power may be out of 
sight ;^ and that if you cut off, or withdraw this 
power, all comes to a stand-still. 

So are all the vast, intricate, and infinitely va- 
ried living mechanisms of Nature connected by 
continuous vital relations with the great motive- 
power of the universe. Suspend or sever their 
connection with that, and all comes to an end. 
And as heat or gravitation is, practically, first and 
continued cause of all the movements of the fac- 
tory, so is the Infinite Life, God, first and contin- 
ued cause of all the phenomena of Nature. 

Having ventured these suggestions as to. the 
most probable conditions and modes of man's prim- 
itive formation, let us now return to a further con- 
sideration of the conditions and modes of Jiis suc- 
ceeding and continued formation. And I wish to 
be understood as claiming that the processes here- 
in described are in operation now, and will con- 



6S The Problem of Life 

tinue. And man will continue to be man ; and 
apes will continue to be apes ; and so of all the lower 
classes and orders of beings ; as these are all essen- 
tial elements in the ultimate compound. 

As all the fibres of the silk, cotton, wool, can 
never be cloth until woven into a fabric through 
some loom, so all the lives, passions, powers, capa- 
cities, of all beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, 
can never form man, until they are woven into one 
fabric through the loom of his body. But as the 
constituent elements of the human soul are elabo- 
rated, prepared, and exist as characteristic qualities 
in all the lower animals, as ready prepared factors 
for the composition of man, their being woven into 
one structure through one organism must inevita- 
bly form the human soul ; as such a composition 
could be, or form, nothing else. And should 
these animals cease to exist, and so cease 
to elaborate and prepare these materials, then 
man himself must^ cease to be formed. Indeed, let 
but the vegetable cell, which draws out the primi- 
tive fibre from the infinite life, cease its operations, 
and all the vast and numberless complications 
which follow in the progressive development of 
man must come to an end. We see the truth of 
this illustrated in deserts like that 'of Sahara. 

The essential qualities in all organic forms are 
life and mind; the organism being merely the 
vehicle or means of development and expression. 



And Immortality. 69 

The earth and its surroundings — space — contain 
all the elements of toth mind and body. The disin- 
tegration of any organic body does not annihilate 
its elements. Nor does the disintegration of mind, 
or its separation from organic forms, annihilate its 
elements. And so the elements of both continue 
to exist in the reservoirs of space after death. 
But as matter, on passing through organizing and 
organic processes, becomes refined, and fitted for 
higher structures ; so life and mind, in passing 
through organic relations, disintegrations and for- 
mations, become fitted for still higher organic rela- 
tions and expressions. 

In our manufacturing processes, we work, as far 
as we can, after the example of Nature. We 
build our great factory for dealing wholly with 
material things ; while she deals chiefly with spir- 
itual ;,the material being merely subservient. We 
bring the raw material, it may be silk or cotton, to 
our factory. An observer watching only the first 
steps sees only the preparation of the cocoons for 
•unreeling, or the cotton for spinning. These pro- 
cesses performed, the silk or cotton dies out of its 
first organic relations, is disintegrated, or separated 
from the machinery, and passes out of sight, as it 
were, into other departments of the building, and 
enters upon other processes and into new relations. 
And unless the observer follows it through the 
various departments of the factory, and closely 



70 TJie Problem of Life 

watches its various progressive stages, lie may won- 
der what this first operation which he has seen 
may signify. And he will not be able, without 
close scrutiny, to discover the materials of the raw 
silk or cotton, in the beautifully woven texture in 
the salesroom. 

In following the materials through all their 
stages, how^ever, he would find that sometimes 
they were sufi'ered forest awhile in a passive state 
until wanted for the next step. As the materials 
of our life and mind, after passing through the 
stages of preparation in the organic forms of lower 
animals, may rest for a time in a latent or jDassive 
state in some departments of the laboratory of Na- 
ture, until wanted for higher, and even the highest 
relations. 

In these vital operations of Nature, we may 
regard organic forms as the machinery, ^d life 
and mind as the raw materials to be converted and 
unfolded into the human soul ; and so all the ma- 
terial, before combination into the ultimate fabric, 
must pass through these preparatory organic 
processes. 

So let us take life and mind for our raw material, 
the earth and its surroundings for our factory, and 
man as the ultimate fabric into which they are to 
be woven. 

Life and mind involve innumerable phenomena, 
or manifestations. And these principles, with 



And Immortality. 71 

their numberless forms of expression, are wrought 
into a complex fabric, through a multitude of or- 
ganic forms and processes ; from the simple cell by 
which their minutest atoms are separated from the 
infinite mass, drawn into parallel and cohering 
fibres, twisted into threads in the next higher 
forms, and at length the end is reached in the or- 
ganic form of man ; who is able to cognize his 
own processes, to study himself and other beings, 
to deal with abstract ideas, &c. 

In the progress of this work, we do not see the 
material transferred from one machine, or organic 
form, to another. But we are certain that the pas- 
sage is made ; for we find the materials are the 
same, in whatever organic structure, or part of the 
great factory, they may be found. For we all 
know that fidelity is still fidelity, and jealousy 
is still jealousy, ambition is still ambition, cun- 
ning is still cunning, and so on; whether these 
spiritual elements exist primarily, as peculiar, dis- 
tinctive, and characteristic traits in the lower ani- 
mals, or finally, as combined and making up one 
complex being in man. 

The law which governs all organic develop- 
ments is planted as a living idea in the seed-germ. 
And this idea is not the starch, sugar, albumen, 
fat, or whatever make up the pulp of the seed ; 
but, as before stated, a living thought, which is 
the conception, or whole plan of the being to be 



72 The Problem of Life 

formed; and which determines whether the new 
being shall he snail, crocodile, chimpanzee, or man. 
And since primeval formations, parent structures 
have deposited these conceptions in such relations 
as to connect them with both the material and 
spiritual elements, elaborated through lower organic 
forms, and necessary to the formation of new be- 
ings like themselves. So that this conception, or 
germ, connects every order of beings with the 
material prepared by every order of beings below 
it. And thus the germs of man are connected by 
vital relations with every element necessary to 
the complete- structure of his mind and body. 

To carry the poor illustration of a factory — for 
want of a better — a little further, we may say the 
earth and atmosphere form the whole range of 
buildings, including storehouses ; life and mind the 
materials to be converted ; and all organic forms 
the machinery by which the transformations are 
made and the end is reached ; while the forces 
employed are the Divine mind and will. The pro- 
cesses are purely natural. The cell is the first and 
simplest form of mechanism. Its office is to sepa- 
rate the primitive atom of life from the infinite 
mass, elaborate and prepare it for the next higher 
step. 

In the performance of this office, it swells and 
expands by simple imbibation, or drinking in the 
surrounding materials through its enclosing mem- 



And Immortality. 73 

brane. What causes this cell to drink and ex- 
pand? ''Motion/"' says the materialist. What 
causes this motion ? "I don't know/' he an- 
swers. Well, is it not force ? And is not this 
force planted, as a living conception, in the cell- 
germ, as the simplest expression of the same force 
which causes all the phenomena of the universe ? 
Then this cell is but the primitive thought of God, 
relating to organic forms ; and contains in its nu- 
cleus another thought, the germ of another cell 
like itself, which, as the outer form of this one 
perishes, shall supply its place, and continue the 
process of taking up and preparing raw material. 

As fast as these cells prepare this material, their 
outer forms perish ; and so the elaborated life is 
taken up into higher organic relations, formed by 
a complex union of cells, while the disintegrated 
body of the primitive cell is ready for some other 
outer form.* And so on through the ascending 
scale of life. The vital elements of the lower 
vegetation unite to form the higher, and then 
emerge anew in the lower forms of animal life ; 
and so the work goes on ; as fast as the essential 
materials are prepared in one form of life, they 
pass from the machinery or organisms which 
[)repared them, and are transferred to reservoirs in 
this vast laboratory, and then carried upward 
and onward through other and higher organic 
mechanisms, by these natural processes, until, aa 



74 The Problem of Life 

before stated, they reach their completed and 
final relations in the human soul. 

I have based, and shall continue to base, all my 
reasonings and arguments upoii the ground that 
life and mind constitute the essential elements, 
or the soul of matter. And that all essences — 
life, mind, and matter — are indestructible. Now 
a dog, as we see him, is composed of all three. 
Kill the dog, and you do not annihilate, but only 
disintegrate his body. And life and mind are 
absolutely as indestructible as life and mind, as 
matter is indestructible as matter. Hence the 
life and mind of the dog, with all that constitutes 
him a dog, as to his passions and mental endow- 
ments, or the spirit that barked and bit • and was 
faithful to his master while in the body, continue 
to exist after his death as really and essentially 
as before. So of the spiritual elements of horse, 
toad,, ox, beetle, sheep, owl, cat, fox,, gorilla, and 
all other creatures. * The characteristics of mind 
and passion, or the spiritual elements which dis- 
tinguish all these classes and orders of beings from 
each other, still exist after their death in the 
storehouses of nature around us. And their disin- 
tegrated lives and minds are ready and waiting to 
enter into combination to form the lives and minds 
of men. 

In the present state of knowledge, it is not wise 
dogmatically to affirm any thing on this subject. 



And Immortality. 75 

And so I am only proposing a theory, after the 
fashion of the day, with such facts and reason- 
ings to support it as to make its truth to me even 
more than probable. And so I will further sug- 
gest the process of this combination in the unfolding 
soul of man, as also including and illustrating the 
processes in all lower beings. 

In following the progressive development of 
organic life, we have regarded the organisms 
simply as machinery in this laboratory of the 
earth ; w^th life and mind to be wrought into 
conscious, individualized, self-cognizing souls ; and 
that all organic forms, so far as we know, originate 
in germs ; and that these germs contain the idea, 
or mind, which selects, arranges, and in all things 
governs, the whole process of development, from 
the lowest to the highest. 

Now, take a case of the conception of a human 
being, and see what, according to this theory, 
are the necessary steps for his composition and 
development; and we shall find them as simple 
in the formation of the mental, as they are in the 
formation of the phj^sical structure. 

The processes are precisely the same in the 
development of man, in all their essentials, as 
those in the bird ; with this difference onlj^, as to 
relations or conditions, that while the e^g of the 
oviparous, or egg-lajang animal, contains plastic 
material enough to build up the whole new being 



'J 6 The Problem of Life 

until it can breathe, digest its own food, and so 
maintain an independent existence, the egg of 
man, and all viviparous animals, only contains the 
conception, and enough plastic material with 
which to begin the organizing process, while all 
the remainder is prepared and supplied by the 
parent organism. ' In the commencement of 
this process, the pellucid area, primitive trace, 
vascular area, heart, are formed as in the bird: 
the blood-vessels ramify over the yelk-sack the 
same. Then comes the variation of mode. Be- 
fore the materials of this minute ^^^^ are used up, 
a blood-vessel is conducted out from its centre by 
the " allantois " to the inner surface of the matrix, 
into which it soon becomes rooted, and then, 
through the communication thus formed with 
the parent structures, all the remainder of the 
materials are supplied for both mind and body. 

It requires but a moment's reflection to satisfy 
us, that the body of a child is built up wholly by 
materials supplied in the food ingested by the 
mother. Will it require a much greater amount 
of reflection to satisfy us that the child's mind is 
also built up by materials inhaled by the mother 
in the atmosphere, carried through the same 
circulation along with the food to the informing 
being, and so mind and body unfold and de-' 
velop together, under the direction of the Divine 
thought planted in the germ as conception ? 



rf 



And Immortality. yy 

Although the mother may stamp her temper, 
complexion, or other peculiarities, upon her off- 
spring, she retains the whole quantity of her o\\*\\ 
spiritual as well as bodily structure after its 
birth ; so that the materials to form the new be- 
ing have not been abstracted from her mind or 
bod}'', for she has lost nothing in its formation ; 
and so it must have been formed from materials 
which existed outside, and which merely passed 
through her for the purpose of formation ; as 
plastic material in passing through a mould takes 
impressions from it, but leaves the mould itself 
entire. 

As the child's body is formed from materials 
in the food assimilated by the mother ; so is its 
mind formed from materials in the air, inhaled 
and assimilated by the mother. 

As essential to this.theory, I have assumed the 
indestructibility of any of the principles of life 
and mind ; and so the atmosphere all around this 
'earth is stored with the lives, minds, passions, 
which have been discharged at their death from 
all the organic forms of being below man, and 
which are waiting to be organized into man, as their 
last and highest combination and expression, and 
the ultimate -end of their being. And we inhale 
and exhale these elements at every breath, and 
they are carried in the blood through the whole 
circulation. And when the conception of a human 



^S The Problem of Life 

being takes place, these vital elements are carried 
in the circulation to the embryo ; and the same 
force which there selects the materials from the 
maternal blood, and arranges and organizes them 
into the body, also selects from the same fluid the 
spiritual materials, and arranges and organizes 
them into the mind, which constitutes man. 

Into the composition of man, — according to 
this theory, — there must enter portions of the 
spiritual attributes and characteristics of all crea- 
tures below him. And that this is the case, we 
have no more difficulty in discovering than we do 
in detecting the products of the silk-worm, cotton- 
boll, or sheep's back, in any of our own woven 
textures; for we everywhere find the same, men- 
tal qualities in man that we do in any and all of the 
lower animals. In the formative processes of dif- 
ferent men, it will sometimes happen that one 
may gain a preponderance of the characteristics of 
one animal, and one of another. And in common 
speech, we sometimes designate them by these 
characteristics; saying of one, "He is a real 
bull-dog;" of another, "hoggish;" of another, 
" foxy ; " of others, " slippery as an eel ; " " snake 
in the grass ; " " gentle as a lamb ; " "bold as a lion," 
and so on. Further attention and thoughtfulness 
upon this subject might make it phiiner, if it is not 
already plain enough. 

In treating of man's origin or descent, some 



And Immortality. 79 

philosophers deal chiefly with the bodily struc- 
tures, or the organic machinery of the lower or- 
ders (I use the word " orders " in a liberal sense) 
of animals, for the purpose of finding out their 
relationships ; and although there are many strik- 
ing points of resemblance, they find them all sepa- 
rated by chasms which they cannot bridge over ; 
and certain links are wanting by wdiich to connect 
and complete the chain of being. 

The object of a factory, with all its complicated 
machinery, is to produce fabrics. And the object 
of the Divine mechanisms pf nature is to pro- 
duce fabrics also, — soul fabrics. Suppose these 
philosophers should examine all the various kinds 
of machinery necessary to convert raw cotton into 
beautiful prints, with little thought or inquiry as 
to the ends which all these numerous, curious,- 
and complicated machines are to serve, from a 
cotton-gin up to the loom and the printing appa- 
ratus ; and though they might have a dreamy appre- 
hension that all these various and apparently in- 
congruous machines were somehow related to and 
dependent on each other, they would find gaps 
and chasms between them which they could not 
bridge over; and that certain connecting links 
were utterly wanting. 

Now, if they would look upon all this machinery 
merely as means to an end, and would follow the 
raw material to be converted, through all its tran- 



8o The Problem of Life 

sitioBS, transformations, combinations, from the 
gin until it came out of the printing machine, 
a beautifully finished texture, they would easily 
bridge over all these chasms, and find all these 
wanting links. 

So if we regard all these living organisms of Na- 
ture merely as macliinery in her grand laboratory, 
with life and mind as materials to be converted 
and woven into the ultimate fabric in human 
souls, all gaps and chasms between the diiferent 
classes, orders, families of all animated nature 
are bridged over, and all connecting links in the 
great chain of being are found. And if the theo- 
ry herein propounded is true, as the facts of Na- 
ture bear. witness, we may here possibly find a 
solution to the problem of man's origin and descent. 
« In this inquiry I have based my theory of man's 
origin and formation upon the ground that the 
separation of mind from organic forms does not 
even change its essence as mind ; and that con- 
sciousness is an essence of mind. And the ques- 
tion arises. How can the minds of all the lower 
animals be compounded into one structure, so as 
to form man, and each one not carry the conscious- 
ness of his past existence as an animal into the 
new structure, and so create an utter confusion ? 

No animal can have the consciousness of any 
animal whatever, until he is formed as such. The 
consciousness of a bee, as to his instincts, passions, 



And Immortality. 8 1 

and relations, belong to him only as a bee. Com- 
bine his attributes with those of other insects, to 
make up a higher animal, and his consciousness as 
a bee ceases, and an entire new consciousness be- 
gins, which belongs to the new animal as such. 
The consciousness of a dog belongs to him as a 
dog, as a separate and distinct being from the cat 
or any other animal. And all his powers, passions, 
and experiences, including the kicks and kind- 
nesses he may have received, relate to him as a dog 
only ; and when he dies out of his body, all the es- 
sences and capacities of this consciousness remain 
in a latent condition, ready to be called into new- 
er, fresher, and higher activities, in new and high- 
er combinations in the human soul. And in this 
new combination, it awakens and begins as the 
consciousness of man, and relates and belongs to 
him as man, and only such. And were there any 
higher material organic structure into which the 
mind of man could be organized in combination 
with other beings, so as to form an order still 
higher than himself, his death would in turn sus- 
pend and render his consciousness latent, until it 
was quickened and revived in a new form of ex- 
pression in the higher being. 

But there is no higher. The work of unfold- 
ing and ascending formations reaches its ultimate 
and fulfilment in man. And into him the ele- 
ments of immortalized consciousness are woven 



82 The Problem of Life 

and completed. And I look into the structure of 
liis body, and think of its marvellous arrange- 
ments of bones, muscles, vital organs, with, their 
interlacing flexures of arteries, veins, nerves, 
lymphatics, ramifying through the whole in count- 
less millions ; with tissues of fibres, which .are 
twisted, interlaced, and woven within and without, 
in other millions also countless ; and of the innu- 
merable millions of blood-cells, lymph-cells, which 
circulate in and through all this wonderful mech- 
anism, carrying, in their regular fixed orbits, nu- 
trition, life, and power, to all its parts ; and know 
that this infinite complication in all its details is 
only secondary and subservient to man's still more 
wonderful and complicated spiritual being. 

And then I look out into the illimitable spaces, 
and contemplate whatsoever these spaces reveal to 
me, — suns, stars, planets, nebulae, galaxies, con- 
stellations, — what seem to me vast systems of 
worlds, and think they are but infinitesimal parts 
of the outward structure or framework of the All- 
Soul. And planets, stars, suns, constellations, are 
only the minute cells, wheeling and circulating in 
their orbits through this infinitely complicated 
organism. And this All-Soul is God. And he, 
through a long succession of processes, has formed 
man, as his well and only begotten Son on this 
planet. For all other creatures merge and lose their 
beings in him. And man stands in an outward. 



And Immortality. ^-i^ 

organic form, on the threshold of an unending 
conscious existence ; complete in all his capacities 
and possibilities ; needing experience, discipline, 
culture, to bring all his powers and capacities into 
harmony with his own highest good; with this 
experience and culture beginning necessarily with 
his bodily structure, but not ending with it, .as I 
shall soon attempt to show. 

And so this planet is man's Garden of Eden, 
which he must till and dress, until it blooms in 
more than fabled beauty, fragrance, and splendor. 
Then let *' Earth's mountains be levelled, and her 
seas fill up in our passage ; " and let us " stamp 
our footprints into her hardest adamant," so that 
the '' last rear of the long hosts " of humanity may 
" read traces of its earliest van ; " and may also 
know of a truth " that w^e are from God, and to 
God." 

A friendly critic sa3'S, " I do not feel quite 
sure, when you come to discharging all the animals 
after death into circumambient space, whence their 
characteristics are absorbed into the human organi- 
zation, and there vitally reproduced under new 
comKinations and conditions. I prefer the theory 
of gradual descent, which slowly accumulated the 
characters of nature, and brought them to a 
microcosm in man." 

Now, this theory which my friend prefers is 
precisely the theory which I am here attempting 



84 The Problem of Life 

to prove. For these " cliaracteristics of nature," 
which are " brought to a microcosm in man," are 
primarily and chiefly, if not wholly, spiritual. 
Man is not bones, muscles, and viscera : he is life 
and mind, or feeling and intellect, — a conscious, 
self-cognizing soul. And I am only trying to show 
how " the characteristics of nature," which consti- 
tute this soul, have been " slowly accumulated 
and brought to a microcosm," or an all-containing 
and self-cognizing condition in him, as the end of 
all her innumerable processes and operations. 

In connection with this theory of man's compo- 
sitioUj there are considerations of great practical 
value. The qualities of any compound are deter- 
mined by the qualities of the elements which enter 
into its structure. If we wish to make cloth of 
the finest texture, we select the finest materials, 
whether silk, wool, cotton, cleanse them from all 
extraneous "matters, and then work them up 
through the best machinery, and so get the finest 
fabric. 

To apply this method to the composition of our- 
selves, we must begin, with improving, not merely 
the physical bodies, but the mental and moral 
qualities, of all beings below us. We must cleanse 
and refine the materials of which we are made. If 
the mental and moral qualities of all the aiiimals 
below us should be improved as materials, and 
their bodily structures improved as machinery for 



Ajid Immortality, 85 

our own formation, then it must follow, if this 
theory is good for any thing, that our own men- 
tal and moral qualities and physical structures 
would be improved also, as a necessary result. 

From a very slight glance at the relations of 
men and animals, in different countries and cli- 
mates, the facts to a considerable extent support 
this theory. And I throw out these suggestions 
with a hope that they may lead to further inquiry. 

In countries, or parts of countries, no matter 
how old, w'here savage beasts, reptiles, &c., still 
continue to live and flourish, civilization has made 
but little progress. Men are still savages, barba- 
rians, or at best half-civilized. And I think it will 
be generally observed that the men of any country 
partake largely of the characters of the animals 
which live there. In the most highl}'- civilized and 
enlightened countries, beasts of prey are driven 
out, or become extinct ; and even the dog, cat, 
horse, ox, — all domestic animals, — become more 
gentle, docile, and affectionate. Pastoral people 
are generally peaceable and orderlj'- people. 

Savage men live by hunting wild and savage 
beasts. When they have killed off all the wild 
beasts, the materials for forming savage men, to 
an extent, fail ; and the savage man himself be- 
comes extinct, or turns to higher, more refining 
and elevating pursuits. And while with savages 
war is the rule, either among different tribes, or 



S6 The Pjvblejn of Life 

upon the lower animals, witli civilized men it is 
the exception. And among highly cultured and 
refined men, peace will be the everlasting law, 
and war will be unknown. 

And in this connection we discover the true 
basis of all reform. To refer again to our illustra- 
tion. After a fabric is woven, there is little use in 
trying to reform or improve it. If its materials 
are crude, and full of coarse and unrefined matters, 
any attempt to cleanse and purify it would only 
rend and tear it to pieces. So in regard to the 
evils in human society. They are radical, inhe- 
rent in the elements of its strueture. And the 
efforts of reformers to remove them sometimes re- 
sult in upheavals, convulsions, and wars ; which 
bring the barbarous elements uppermost, and, to 
an extent, uproot and destroy some specific form 
of evil, and so some progress is made. The Refor- 
mation in Europe, and the destruction of slavery 
in this country, illustrate this point. 

But the progress is slow ; and the hearts of 
reformers and philanthropists are saddened and dis- 
couraged. But, taking this view of the matter, 
they need not be so, for here we find the key to 
final and complete success ; and have already — 
the Divine wisdom, . unconsciously to ourselves, 
leading us in the matter — commenced the work 
of reform, in improving the animals, grains, fruits, 
and even flowers, by which we live and surround 



And Immoi'tality, Sy 

ourselves. And hereby we are "building wiser 
than we know." 

For, if we would improve the race of men, we 
must begin by refining and improving the stock of 
whicli they are made. And the way to do this is 
by kindness and gentleness in "all our dealings and 
intercourse with the lower animals. And we can- 
not begin too low down in the scale of beings. 
Indeed, the lower the better, even if we begin 
with vegetables ; for to feed upon, and surround 
ourselves with, the best forms of vegetable life, 
makes us better. And I hope much from the re- 
searches, inquiries, and investigations of naturalists 
in and among the lower classes and orders of or- 
ganic life ; and also from the labors of humane socie- 
ties, or societies for the promotion of kindness to 
animals. And I see no reason why these researches 
and inquiries may not result in much good to us, in 
the way of cherishing, encouraging, and protecting 
these vegetables, insects, and other creatures, 
which elaborate and prepare the best materials 
for the composition of man, while we discourage, 
check, and root out those which only develop and 
prepare the ruder, coarser, and baser materials. 
So that the fabric of man may be at length woven 
of only the most cleansed and refined elements. 
And thus cultured man would become the instru- 
ment of his own highest culture and improvement. 
Having stated what seems to me the most pos- 



88 The Problem of Life 

sible and probable theory of man's origin and 
composition, I wisli now to offer some thoughts on 
his present relations and surroundings ; including, 
also, some reasons for his inherent and e'ssential 

IMMORTALITY, 

with the uses of his material relations and necessi- 
ties, and their bearings upon his existence in a 
purely spiritual state. 

In all my reasonings thus far, I have considered 
man as a spiritual being, — as mind clothed in a 
material organic form. And our bodies connect us 
with the world of matter around us, as well as 
with the world of mind. And the world of matter 
si.^nals and acquaints us more fully with the world 
of mind. And so we are brought, first, into prac- 
tical working relations with the matter of our own 
bodies, and then with extraneous matter. 

In order that mind may act on matter, and 
shape and fashion it at will, it must somehow have 
a practical working connection with it. And this 
connection is by descending gradations, or links, 
from the most refined, downwards to the grosser. 
First with the subtle fluids of the brain, then the 
nerves, and through them the heavy muscles, and 
by them the heavier and more inert bones. So 
the material hand is able to grasp material wood, 
stone, iron, and do with them whatsoever the liv- 
ing mind wills. 



A7td Immortality. 89 

The brain is a soft, pulpy mass, composed 
inwardly of very delicate fibres, or threads, 
and outwardly of very minute vesicles, or grains, 
and also of watery or phosphorescent substances, 
and is permeated by electrical and magnetic fluids; 
these last sometimes called "vital," as "vital 
electricity " and " vital magnetism." The brain 
is an organ of mind, but is not itself mind : as 
a flute is an organ of music, but is not music itself, 
but only an instrument by which music is revealed 
to our consciousness. 

As the brain is composed of these refined and 
subtle materials, it furnishes a good connecting 
medium, or link, between mind and matter, or the 
spiritual man and his material body; and, as 
these highly refined and sublimated fluids are the 
most closely related of any materials to spiritual 
force, they serve as media, through which mind 
acts on matter. I use the word " matter " here to 
denote that form of any substance known to any 
of our outward sen^s ; and the term " mind," to 
include the whole of our spiritual being. 

This conscious, loving, sorrowing, rejoicing hu- 
man soul, by and through its bodily necessities 
and relations, is made to experience the strongest 
contrasts of pain and pleasure, for the highest and 
most beneficent purposes. For we are the living 
emotions and thoughts, the love and wisdom, of 
God, clothed in outward forms. 



90 The Problem of Life 

The arcliitect shapes his thought in wood, stone, 
or other materials. He thinks — a building, 
and clothes his thought in the corresponding out- 
ward material and form. The machinist thinks — 
an engine, and clothes this thought also in the 
needed outward form and material. But these are 
only secondary products of created beings, and 
hence not endowed with any attribute of life. 
While God, the First Cause, thinks — man ; and 
clothes his living thoughts in. these garments of 
flesh, whereby they feel and know of outward 
things, and are to be disciplined into the fulness 
of Sbnship. 

Being, then, detached thoughts or expressions of 
God, — living essences of the Divine mind clothed 
in- flesh, — we come to this conscious existence 
with unlimited capacities for knowledge, yet really 
knowing nothing, and so with every thing to 
learn ; and, as the most real and useful knowl- 
edge is experimental, we are compelled by 'the 
necessities of our condition to 'test the natures and 
qualities of all things. 

To illustrate : I am near the earth's pole in 
winter. And after enduring the cold of this region 
until I learn how it can freeze me, I move south- 
ward ; and, coming into the temperate zone, soon 
feel myself warmed into life by the genial influ- 
ences of the sun ; and how pleasant and grateful 
its warmth is to me! It really makes me feel* 



Ajid Immortality. 91 

happy ; and I call it good. But, if I continue my 
journey onward to the equator, I find the sun's 
heat so increased that it scorches and burns me ; 
when, panting and roasting, I haste from this 
opposite condition back to the temperate zone 
again ; having learned by experience, that with 
not enough heat I freeze, and with too much I 
burn. And both these states I call evil : while 
with a degree of heat amounting to a genial 
warmth I am made quite comfortable ; and this 
comfort I call good. 

Now, had I experienced neither extreme of cold 
nor heat, I should have no data, whereby I #)uld. 
determine the state and qualities of the mean tem- 
perature, which T call good. And so I learn, that 
" good " and " evil " are only words which often 
signify different quantities, or the mean and the 
extremes of the same thing ; in other words, that 
evil is too little, or too much, while good is just 
enough of a thing. 

This simple lesson in physics I have learned 
through my bodily relations ; and without this 
body, and its out-going and in-coming senses, I 
could not have learned it. And so I get a hint of 
the uses of vay body. I am speaking here as if I 
and my body are not one and the same thing ; 
which, as already shown and further to be shown, 
is true. I am not this body, any more than the 
body is the coat which is wrapped about it. I 



92 The Problem of Life 

have a temporary residence in this body, for its 
uses. It is my primary schoolhouse, where, under 
an eminently practical old-fashioned master, I pick 
up the hard and tough rudiments of an education, 
the higher branches of which are to he studied 
in a body more refined and exalted, — of spiritual 
and celestial elements, and relations eternal and 
in the heavens. 

Tlirough this present body, I am brought into 
contact and acquaintance with the earth, its at- 
mosphere, and what they contain, — the elements 
and their changes. And, pupil or scholar that I 
,ampl learn that certain conditions and relations 
cause pain, and certain others give pleasure. 
And as I like the pleasure, and dislike the pain, 
I call the one good, and the other evil ; and so am 
constantly seeking for one, and striving to avoid 
the other. And j^et, as already suggested, without 
a knowledge of pain we could have no true appre- 
ciation of pleasure ; and could set no just value 
upon it. Hence the necessity, during our sojourn 
in the body, of these opposite conditions of good 
and evil. For contact and conflict with evil are 
quite as necessary to the growth of a strong and 
noble manhood, as the indulgence of pleasure or 
the enjoyment of good ; as suffering and pain 
enlighten the understanding, and strengthen and 
purify the affections. 

It was stated just now, that our connection with 



A7td Immortality. 93 

outward matter is by gradations, from the most 
refined and sublimated, downwards to the grosser. 
The finest substances of the brain form the tem- 
j^orary seat of the soul, — the throne of tlie con- 
scious me. " Beason dethroned " means that the 
soul has lost its healthful working relations with 
the brain ; for it is through the brain and its 
outstretching nerves, that the soul is able to ex- 
ercise and maintain its government over the body, 
and its various voluntary functions. If the brain 
or the nerves are diseased, there appear diseased 
manifestations of the soul. We sometimes see per- 
sons lost to all consciousness by some injujy ; as 
when restored, they confess to having been dead 
to all impressions during the syncope. In such 
states, the brain and nervous system has been vio- 
lently and suddenly shocked into numbness, torpor, 
or inertia, with all its raen4;al powers in a state of 
latency, or temporary suspense, so as to hold the 
soul in bonds, as a powerless prisoner, and for the 
time being render all impressions difficult or im- 
possible. And, if the fainting continues, the soul 
bursts its bonds, casts away its bodily fetters, and 
escapes. If not, it is restored to its normal action 
and outward consciousness. 

In these cases, there is no proof that the soul 
itself is diseased, but only its means of outward 
expression. The soul, or man, is a conscious 
spiritual being, temporarily connected with a ma- 



94 1^^^ Problem of Life 

' terial body for tlie purpose of education. Now, to 
break or injure the body does not touch the integ- 
rity of the soul, even though it should kill the 
body, and destroy its connection with it. 

" Ah ! '' said one to me, " you knock a man 
well on the head, and there's an end of him : he 
knows no more." Let us see. You have a fine 
piano in your house, its action complete, its 
chords perfect. I come, and with a big hammer 
pound it to pieces. Are the elements of music, or 
the principles of harmony and melod}^, thereby 
destroyed ? Or would the destruction of all the 
instruments in the \iniverse in the least affect 
these principles ?' What if we cannot hear music 
through the material ear without a material in- 
strument : does it therefore not exist ? Its ele- 
ments and principles existed from eternity; and 
instruments only serve . to organize them in out- 
ward forms, and so make them audible through the 
external ear. 

Now, as the elements of music exist in the 
nature of things, and instruments only serve to 
organize and give them outward expression ; and 
as breaking the instrument does not destroy, or 
cause the slightest change in one of its principles; 
so the living entity man exists in the nature of 
things, only more deeply, as an element of the 
divine life, in the mind and heart of God, and 
so is himself essential with God. And as the body 



A7zd Immortality. 95 

is only an instrument through which man ex- 
presses himself outwardly, and is related to mate- 
rial things, to destroy the hody does not in the 
least affect the existence, but only the relations, of 
man. 

But man is more than music. Man is a living, 
conscious, emotional being ; while music is only au 
unconscious relation of things. Now, if destroy- 
ing the musical instruments cannot possibly de- 
stroy those relations of tones to degrees which 
are the basis of music, can it be that destroying 
a man's body will annihilate him as a living soul ? 

At this point I am met with the following ob- 
jection, from one who read this work in manu- 
script : — 

" I do not think your illustration of, the piano 
will stand fire. If a man gets smashed, there's an 
end of him, the materialist says. You reply. No. 
Does music, does the law of harmon}'-, come. to an 
end when somebody smashes a piano ? Certainly 
not. . . . The question is, does the individual 
man continue ? He may have, while living, only 
been an instrument to set forth some universal 
life, as a piano is. The individual piano ceases to 
exist : it can never subserve harmony again. The 
question is, Can the man subserve vitality agaia ? " 

My critic makes a fatal mistake in regarding a 
human hochj as a man. He tells us the piano is an 
instrument to set forth music. That is in essence 



96 The Problem of Life 

what I have said in my illustration ; and I have 
said further, that a man's body — to use my 
friend's language — is " only an instrument to 
set forth " a conscious, individualized form of the 
" universal life." Now, as mj'- friend admits that 
neither music nor the law of harmony comes to an 
end when somebody " smashes a piano," is he not 
forced by the same process of reasoning, or logic, 
to the conclusion that a man does not come to an 
end when his body, or instrument, is " smashed " ? 

Music is the unconscious soul of its organism, 
whether a piano or other. A man is the conscious 
soul of his organism. And the man exists, after 
having become a man, - — for he is not a man until 
he exists as such consciously, — after his body is 
destroyed, as certainly as music exists after the 
destruction of any or all of its instruments. 

Nor should my friend be so sure that the piano 
"can never subserve harmony again ; " nor ask so 
doubtingly — "Can the man subserve vitality 
again ? " For he knows, and no man better than 
he, that the whole structure of the piano can be 
resolved into its original elements, and again re- 
formed by the operations of nature, and made to 
subserve harmony again. In such a case the prin- 
ciples of music, the laws of harmony, remain un- 
changed \ the instrument alone is affected. 

So a man's body (which he mistakes for the 
man), can be and is disintegrated by the same 



And Immortality. 97 

processes, and made to serve various forms of 
vitality, including human life, again and again ; 
while the man himself remains as little affected 
by these organic changes, as the law of harmony 
does when a piano is smashed. 

I have shown that matter is subjected to mind, 
and is its subordinate and inferior ; being used by 
mind to externalize its own conceptions. Mind is 
active power : matter is passive subject. Now, the 
great essential property or attribute of mind is 
consciousness, or knowledge of self. Mind, then, 
cannot exist in normal wakefulness without con- 
sciousness ; nor, hence, without pain or pleasure, 
or both. It is true, that, while clothed in material 
organic forms, conscious, mental or physical, activ- 
ity wastes these organisms ; and so this conscious- 
ness, as to material relations, must be suspended, 
while other modes of vital activity repair this waste, 
as in sleep. 

Nevertheless, you may change the relations of 
mind to outward forms as you will. You may 
" knock a man on the head '' to your heart's con- 
tent ; until, as you say, you have knocked all the 
sense out of him. You have only knocked him 
out of his body ; but you have not destroyed the 
living mind, nor a single one of its attributes. 
Nor is it any more unseen than before ; although 
it may no longer make signs to us through a visi- 
ble organism. 

7 



98 The Problem of Life 

Says another, " Have you not observed that in 
cases of disease or age, as the body wastes away 
the mind fails along with it, and both keep pace 
in their decay, and perish together ? " 

I have frequently observed what appears so. 
But the most skilful player will discourse very bad 
music on a rickety old instrument, with the strings 
half broken, and the other half out of tune. GiA^e 
him a good instrument, and you shall have good 
music. Now, the body is man's instrument, 
whereby he plays or acts upon material things ; 
and as the best musician could make but a sorry 
display of his powers upon a broken-down instru- 
ment, so the most brilliant and powerful mind 
could make little better than insane or idiotic 
manifestations through a diseased body and brain. 

A sceptical friend said, "You cannot prove 
immortality by a mathematical demonstration." 

What is " a mathematical demonstration," but a 
mental or spiritual process, whereby we ascertain 
the definitions and limitations of certain prob- 
lems, truths, or ideas, and find out their relations, 
either to itself or to matter, and which process, as 
De Quincey says, " has not a foot to stand upon, 
which is not purely metaphysical ? " 

The mind which performs this process, solves 
these problems, and understands these truths and 
their relations, is itself " mathematical, " else it 
could neither perform nor understand them ; and 



And Immortality. 99 

proves its own immortality in the process. For 
as these mathematical truths are immortal, so 
must the mind be which demonstrates them. In 
order to demonstrate any truth or problem, the 
mind must contain such truth or problem ; and so 
must be fully equal, if not superior to it, as to all 
its characteristics. And hence it must be equally 
imperishable. And, as truth can never disintegrate 
and perish, so is it impossible for mind which 
demonstrates truth to disintegrate and perish. 
And, as the mind is conscious of this truth and 
its demonstration, so must this consciousness be as 
eternal as the truth itself. 

We hear it said, " Whatsoever had a beginning 
must have an end." Let us see how this applies 
to secondary products, as of our own minds. 

I have referred to an engine, as the clothing of 
a man's idea or conception in outward substance, 
as of iron, for temporary use. Now, the idea of 
the engine is the basic fact in the case. The iron 
in which it is clothed may be battered and bent, 
and then restored and straightened again to con- 
form to the idea. Even in case of alteration and 
improvement, the original idea still exists ; as defi- 
nite ideas once conceived must, eternally, their 
outward forms alone being perishable. If this 
idea always did exist, then it can never have an 
end. But if this idea was born, and had a begin- 
ning as a human thought, there can be no end to 



lOO The Problem of Life 

its continuance. For if all outward forms of it 
should perish from the earth, this idea may be 
again revealed to men's minds, and clothed and re- 
clothed in outward forms, onward indefinitely. 

So, with our present state of knowledge, we can- 
not say with certainty that any thing, except out- 
ward forms, ever had a beginning. Certainly the 
essences of things never had, but only the 
forms and relations of things. But granting that 
man had a beginning, and was born as a living, 
conscious idea or conception of the great First 
Cause, and is clothed in outward substance for 
temporary use ; this Divine idea of man, in all its 
vital, emotional, and conscious integrity, must still 
live, after its outward clothing shall be cast away, 
as surely as his own ideas remain after their own- 
material symbols have perished. 

While man is able to adapt organic forms to the 
forces and elements of Nature, he cannot create 
any thing ; and when he adapts an organ to music, 
a mill to wind or water, an engine to steam, a 
clock to gravitation, he does not create music, or 
any of these elements or forces. They existed prior 
to the machines, and will continue to exist in equal 
quantity after their decay ; as the organisms only 
adapted them to incidental and temporary uses. 

So is it with life and mind. They are no more 
dependent upon organic forms for their existence, 
than the wind is upon a mill, music upon an organ, 



Ajid Immortality. loi 

steam upon an engine, or gravitation upon a clock. 
And yet all these may be only forms, in which 
the universal Soul expresses itself; and so are 
only unconscious instruments of its power, and 
of themselves are without life or consciousness. 
As, when I handle saw or axe, these are forms of 
my expression, and are not forces in themselves, 
but only unconscious instruments of my force ; and 
when the universal Soul expresses itself through 
wind or gravitation, these forms of expression 
have no more consciousness than a tool in my 
hands. And when man adapts an organism to 
these expressions, having neither life nor conscious- 
ness in themselves, nothing is gained for them in 
the way of knowledge or experience ; and when 
the organisms are destroyed, the}^ remain as before. 
But when the same universal Soul- organizes 
an atom of its own essence into a human form, it 
had life and consciousness at the beginning, it has 
them continued, with this added difference in the 
continuance, that whereas, beifore, these attri- 
butes were included in the universal life and con- 
sciousness, and so could have no distinctive per- 
sonal existence as man, a new being is formed, 
which now has an individualized existence, life 
and consciousness of its own. And this individu- 
ality is developed, strengthened, and matured by 
all the experiences of this life in the body. And, 
when the body is destroyed, this individual life can 



102 The Problem of Life 

never again lapse into and lose its separate exist- 
ence and consciousness in the universal Life ; for the 
reason that the individual experience and con- 
sciousness thus gained are established fac*B, and 
must so remain, with the capacity for increasing 
growth and development forever. 

The currents of a river may flow on for a dis- 
tance, and a small stream may branch off and run 
away in a channel of its own ; but the individual 
stream thus formed gains nothing in the way of 
knowledge or understanding; and may return and 
lose itself in the parent stream, with no memory of 
its separation. 

But a company of men may be so related on ship- 
board, in an army, or caravan, as to have a public 
experience, which is the same in all ; but let one 
separate from the company, and go out into an in- 
dependent life, and he gains an individual experi- 
ence and knowledge, which become a part of his 
consciousness ; and this new individual conscious- 
ness is his forever. And he can never lose it by re- 
turning to, and mingling again with his company. 

So when a human soul is unfolded into individ- 
ual life, the experiences of that life are fixed in 
his memory and consciousness forever. And were 
it possible to return again, and mingle with the 
universal Soul, the memory of that experience can 
never be annihilated. For if such annihilation is 
possible, the universe itself may be extinguished. 



And Immortality.. 103 

Life and mind are the highest of all forces ; and 
if the doctrine of the '^ conservation of force " is 
true, then these elemental forces are not lost on 
being separated from organic forms, but are still 
extant in space, ready to be revealed in new forms. 

And so the doctrine of " conservation of force " 
gives us a further illustration of immortality ; for 
memory is a positive force, as without it we 
could never fully perfect any of our plans. Every 
step we take, from and after the first, in the con- 
ception and execution of any worlj or device, must 
relate to, and depend upon, the steps which pre- 
ceded it. If in building 2, house, after laying the 
foundation, I should forget all about it, I should 
go to work and lay it over again ; and as often as 
I had forgotten what was already done, I should 
begin my work anew. Hence memory is essen- 
tial to all progressive life ; and if the philosophers 
will insist that what is called mere ^'physical 
force," once exerted, sends an impulse and an influ- 
ence through eternity, and never ceases its action, 
in some form, and so is never lost, will they at the 
same time deny that life-force, mind-force, includ- 
ing memory, -^ which ace the cauge of all physi- 
cal phenomena, — r are equally imperishable ? If 
not perishable, then we must carry the memory of 
our past into our future. 

I ofter but one other special consideration on 
this head. 



I04 The Problem of Life 

The pyramids of Egypt, St. Peter's Church, and 
other great human structures, are built up by the 
aid of surrounding stagings. When the buildings 
are finished the stagings are removed, while the 
structures themselves,remain. This is man's wis- 
dom, which is only derived and secondary. 

Now, man is the ultimate living fabric, wbich 
God builds up through long-continued natural, and 
so primary processes ; and all the organic forms 
through which the material is prepared, including 
his own body, may be regarded as stagings, used 
as temporary means in building up his spiritual 
structure. If merely pulling down the stagings 
is to annihilate man's consciousness, then indeed 
can no human folly be found to match that of the 
Architect of Nature. 

For all the long generations past, and all the 
long generations to come, are, and shall be, as if 
they had never been, — annihilated all ; and 
so had better never have been, and never to be. 
Eor every soul of these millions of billions of hu- 
man beings has been, and will be, filled with unsat- 
isfied desires ; cravings for good to come ; unat- 
tained hopes and aspirations, growing out of an 
instinctive feeling of unfulfilled being, as if in- 
wrought by our Creator as essences of human life, 
and containing the prophecy of immortal existence, 
only, on this theory of the annihilation of individ- 
ual consciousness, to be blasted forever. All of 



Aitd Immortality. 105 

which involve a supposition of such infinite folly 
and wickedness, that I will not waste time in ar- 
guing against it. 

RELATIOXS OF MAN TO TH^ UNIVERSE. 

Having presented what to me are sufficient and 
satisfactory reasons for man's inherent aijd essen- 
tial immortality, let us further consider his rela- 
tions to the universe of mind and matter about 
him, with their disciplinary and educational uses. 

I have spoken of active force as being hidden, 
except in its manifestations, from outward sense. 
The attraction which keeps this earth a compact 
mass, and holds it, with all the heavenly bodies, in 
•their places ; and that all-wise and all-powerful 
conceptive and constructive energy which is con- 
stantly working up, from these reservoirs in soil 
and atmosphere, all the living forms which people 
both, which — 

" Lives through all life, 
Extends through all extent, 
Spreads undivided, 
Operates unspent," 

is wholly unperceived by any of our outward 
senses. The Infinite Living Spirit, the Universal 
Sold, is forever clothing itself in external forms; 
and we are made acquainted with its powers and 
operations through these. So this solid earth, 
and all the heavenly bodies, with all they contain, 



io6 The Problem of Life 

are only symbols of this living Spirit. And while 
clothing itself in these wonderful draperies, it may 
well chant its grand melody in words so ^tly cho- 
sen by a wise German poet. 

" In beings' floods, in actions' storms, 
I walk and work, 
Above, beneath. 

Work and weave in eiidlegs mption, 
Birth and death 
An infinite ooean, 
A seizing and giving 
The fire of the living. 
'Tis thus at the roaring loom of time I ply, 
And weave for Qod the garment thou seest him by." 

Thus, as above stated, the whole outward uni- 
verse may be regarded as a visible manifestation 
of Deity, '^ the garment of God." This wholB 
illimitable universe is animated and kept in con- 
stant action by one Soul, as our bodies are ani^ 
mated and kept in motion by our souls. Now, this 
Infinite Soul is constantly clothing its finite ideas 
or conceptions in outward living forms, in the man- 
ner and for the purposes already described. 

The highest of these conceptions, or that which 
approximates nearest the Infinite, is man. The 
Infinite is God. Man is then the produpt and off- 
spring of God ; and so partaker, in a limited form 
and degree, according to his capacity, of all the 
powers and attributes of his Creator. These pow- 
ers and attributes in man are all emhryonic. 
They are to develop and unfold, be educated and 



And Immoi'tality, 107 

cultured, in and through this body, to a state of 
divine consciousness, until he feels and knows 
something of his infinite relationships. 

This culture and discipline, as already stated, 
can only be attained through experience. Man 
must work out and demonstrate his own highest 
good. And, that he may do this well, the Creator 
has given him his primary existence here in a 
material body ; clotlied him in flesh, and so sub- 
jected him to the laws of gross matter, that he 
may first test and learn the conditions of lower 
existence, and through these ascend to a knowl- 
edge and enjoyment of the higher. First he is 
related to the material and temporal ; then to the 
spiritual and eternal. 

Through the outward eye we see only those 
opaque objects which reflect light ; with the mate- 
rial hand we touch and handle the same. The out- 
ward ear acquaints us with an endless variety of 
sounds. And so on, with all our sensual organs. 
They bring us into practical working relations 
with air, water, soils, rocks, all the materials of 
which our bodies are composed ; and at the same 
time the body serves as a barrier to wall us out 
from that boundless world of life and power from 
which we are only separated by this thin vail of 
flesh ; and which is altogether too sublime for our 
comprehension, until we have first mastered the 
rudiments of life here in the body. The body, 



io8 The Problem of Life 

being material, must yield to the laws of matter; 
and so the force of gravitation holds it fast to the 
earth ; and through the body and its relations, the 
sensitive soul is compelled by the necessities of its 
conditions to learn these primary lessons, upon 
which all true knowledge of the spiritual state is 
based. 

I have said we begin our conscious existence in 
utter ignorance. We know neither good nor evil; 
and hence must learn the material and moral dif- 
ferences in things by experience and observation. 
The material first, and then the moral and spirit- 
ual. We must have demonstration. As bodily 
health and enjoyment are dependent on certain 
material conditions, and departure from these re- 
sults in disease and suffering, so spiritual health 
and enjoyment are dependent on certain spiritual 
conditions, and departure from these conditions 
as surely results in suffering to the soul. And yet, 
as before stated, without this suffering we could 
have no true standard of enjoyment. 

The youthful inheritor of wealth finds himself 
environed with comforts and blessings, without 
any standard by which he can determine their 
value, as he knows nothing of the labor and toil and 
pains by which they were produced. Nor until he 
is stripped of them all, and feels the hard hand of 
necessity pressing upon him, and is driven by 
the whip of that necessity to toil for pittance 



And Immortality. 1 09 

of the goods he has squandered, can he know the 
real value of what he has lost. 

He only can know the real and practical height 
of a mountain, whose feet have scaled all Its rug- 
ged cliifs, from its lowest base upward to its loftiest 
peak. And as no man can know true exaltation 
until he has first been deeply abased, so none can 
comprehend the full measure of heavenly joy until 
he has first felt the sharp pangs of sufi'ering and 
woe. 

I am not speaking here and now of wilful and 
malignant wrong against fellow-beings ; for as 
Nature's laws, which' are God's methods, are 
alike inexorable in all relations, the judgment and 
condemnation against such are sure and unerring, 
and all must reap and eat the bitter harvests of 
their own sowing. And so I am only explaining 
the necessity of the contrasts which the operations 
of nature everywhere present, but especially in 
the life and relations of man, — lessons of which 
were taught us centuries ago. 

Lazarus, at the rich man's gate, clad in rags, 
full of sores, with the dogs of the street for his only 
consolers, is thence transported upwards, to the 
arms of an exalted and reposing faith. While 
Dives, clad in purple, faring sumptuously every 
day, and spurning the poor beggar from his pres- 
ence, finds himself hurled down to a state of abase- 
ment and sufi'ering far beneath that from which 



no The Problem of Life 

his despised brother has just been released. And 
what is the answer of this calm faith to the plead- 
ings of the once proud, but now humbled and 
suffering soul ? It is, in substance, " Son, be 
patient, and learn your lesson last, as Lazarus did 
his first." Kow, this fable, as above stated, is 
founded in the eternal philosophy and fitness of 
things. 

To apply this law to him who has never known 
conflict with poverty or suffering, either for him- 
self or another, but who, born in the lap of afflu- 
ence and luxury, in the midst of ease and comfort- 
taking, is borne along on the currents of favorable 
circumstances to the pinnacles of material wealth 
and honor, and has " waxed fat," and is " resting on 
his lees," full of pride and self-importance, — shall 
he ride thence through the "pearly gates of 
heaven," and, rattling over its "golden pave- 
ments " in a coach and four, with liveried footmen, 
be at once ushered into the enjoyment of its sub- 
lime and glorious beatitudes ? 

He has no true knowledge of his earthly condition 
and relations, and could not possibly comprehend 
his heavenly, without the basis of practical demon- 
stnation. And as Lazarus — innocent poverty and 
distress — got his experimental knowledge while 
in the body, Dives — heartless wealth and ease- 
taking — must get his after he passes out of it. 
So down, down, into the deep valley of humilia- 



And Immortality. 1 1 1 

tion shall he first go ; and entering its dark 
shadows of death, in the midst of its dim and 
spectre-haunting solitudes, alone and for himself 
shall he confront its grisly horrors, and do battle 
with its grim devils ; until he triumphs over all 
evil or suffering conditions, and the good within 
him becomes uppermost and controlling. And 
thence emerging, seamed and scarred with the 
warfare, — in his memory and consciousness, — 
shall he begin slowly to ascend the grand and 
magnificent heights of a true spiritual exaltation ; 
having learned in his deep humiliation the true 
standard by which to measure every step of prog- 
ress in his ascending life. 

Thus "out of weakness are we made strong," 
and "perfected through suffering," until we "be- 
come as gods, knowing good and evil." Such are 
the conditions of ascension to this divine estate. 
Blessed, thrice blessed, are they who attain to this 
estate while in this bodily life. For, to all such, 
death has lost its sting, and the grave its victory. 
And so the true resurrection is accomplished. 

It may be supposed that I am now running 
wildly about in the regions of empirical enthusi- 
asm. But the spiritual and moral processes here 
described, are really founded in nature, and we 
practise them in art. For to these processes we 
subject all crude and impure materials destined to 
a higher use. We put crude ore into the furnace, 



112 The Problem of Life 

and then under tlie hammer, until the dross is 
burned, melted, and beaten out of it. By the fire 
and the hammer we bring forth at length the 
true " Damascus blade.'' 

So in nature, all fruits are ripened by slow, step- 
by-step processes. First the sour, acrid, immature 
states of early summer ; the heats and dews and 
rains of which develop and strengthen all their 
qualities. Then come the chilling winds and 
nipping frosts of autumn, which soften, mellow, 
and render them nutritious. 

And so with the passions of the human soul : as 
a natural result of its elementary formations, it 
is composed of the discordant passions of all lower 
beings, and so is burdened and clogged with the 
dross and filth of self-love, and is green, sour, and 
acrid with lustful affections, and hence must be. 
harmonized, mellowed, and sweetened. And here 
we discover the divine methods of discipline, 
culture, and maturity. 

The new-born child can neither feel nor know 
the wants of another. He feels his own, and 
eagerly clutches at whatever he thinks will satisfy 
them. And it sometimes happens that another 
child as eagerly clutches at the same thing. Then 
a contest follows ; and in the contests and strug- 
gles of maturer life, each learns that the other has 
wants and necessities, as well as himself. And 
both are compelled to bear the cross of self-denial. 



Ajtd Immortality, 113 

and at the same time to learn some of the pri- 
mary rules of social science. Thus early, even in 
infancy, do the fire and the hammer of the Divine 
administration begin their work upon us. 

This conflict of individual interest, beginning 
with our very existence, is only apparent. For 
such is the fundamental unity of human interests, 
so completely are our essential lives merged in 
each other's, that the highest good and happiness 
of each individual can only be attained through the 
highest good and happiness of all. The truth of 
this statement is rarely discovered, and still more 
rarely realized, in this bodily state of our being. 

Self-love, shrouded in ignorance, prompts every 
one to seize and appropriate to his own use all 
the goods within his reach ; and hence a sort of 
social warfare is kept up between every man and 
his neighbor, from the cradle to the grave ; so 
that all our interests and relations are, at times, 
objects of personal strife ; thus making necessary 
those crosses and restraints of society and govern- 
ment, which are calculated to break in, subdue, 
and prevent the too violent action of the passions : 
but which, nevertheless, do not prevent the strong 
and cunning from getting the "lion's share," and 
so monopolizing the wealth, power, and honors of 
this temporary state of existence. And these, not 
having learned the lesson of Dives and Lazarus, 
regard themselves as a more highly favored and 

10* 



Ii4 The Prohle^i of Life 

superiot class, and affect to look dowii ii|)cln tBeii? 
poorer fellows, with more ot less contempt. 

Here we discover that the sins and suiferings 
of this life are not only necessary results of man's 
composite structure, hut are also essential condi- 
tions of his deyelopment and attainments iii 
knowledge ^iid culture. And so they do not 
happen outside the circle of the ditihe ai*range« 
ments, but ate the surest, and indeed the only 
methods of reaching its highest and most tjenefi* 
cent results. Being only temporary incidents oi* 
conditions, they are yet eternal in theit uses. 

But education and culture do nOt end, they only 
begin, with life in the body. The higher truths 
of out social and spiritual relations, as a general 
rule, can Only be led-rned aiid realized in the spirit- 
ual world. But learned and realized they will 
be, for tJiat wisdom and power which conceived 
and formed us, loves, alsOj too well to leave his 
work iii a. crude arid unfinished std-toj 

And here I wish to repeat, that upon tliis sub- 
ject, which is so vast, and upon which our knowl- 
edge i^ so limited, I am only out on a voyage of 
discovery^ guided by such lahdmarks as I find 
mapped out in the facts and principles of nature ; 
and telling hoW thiligs seem to me, with the 
reasons for this seeming based on these facts and 
principles. 

I hare spoken of outward forms as only the 



And Immortality. 1 1 5 

clotliing of ideas ; and of these forms, as being 
shaped like the ideas which produced them. Our 
spiritual bodies are shaped like our material 
bodies, which they permeate and animate in every 
part. The material grew upon the spiritual, as a 
natural, close-fitting garment, inside and out ; 
and so bodies and shadows forth the man, that 
almost every one mistakes it for the man himself. 

A friend asks if the spirit has legs, arms, mem- 
bers, organs? It has them now, while* in the 
body, a whole perfected human form. If, as I 
am trying to show, the real man is a spiritual 
being, and the outward body is only the out- 
growth of the spiritual, then the spiritual remains 
the same after the material is cast off; with all 
its members, organs, and form complete : as un- 
clothing the man does not dismember him. 

And as man only works in the order and after 
the patterns of nature, such is the case with all 
the forms of use, beauty, or comfort with which we 
surround ourselves. These forms all take their 
shape as spiritual entities in our ideal or spiritual 
, world ; and we bring them from thence, and clothe 
them in such materials as are adapted to our needs 
and enjoyments through the body ; the body 
itself being entirely without sensation. The soul 
alone feels, suffers, or enjoys. 

We speak of imaginations as vapory nothings ; 
but a moment's reflection may show us that they 



Ii6 The Problem of Life 

are real, and because spiritual, all the more sub- 
stantive and enduring facts, some of which we 
clothe in outward forms. And this clothing we 
call something : we say it is a reality. Numerous 
ideas or imaginations, however, are formed in, or re- 
vealed to, the mind, which are never thus outwardly 
clothed ; and we say, " they are nothing hut ima- 
ginationsP But we have abundant reasons for be- 
lieving that these thoughts and imaginations are 
much more real and enduring than their outward 
garments; as the fact of their outward clothing 
adds nothing to their essential qualities, but only 
brings them within the grasp of our outward 
senses. And through these material forms we are 
able by our senses to retain that connection with 
them which m.ay be pleasant or necessary to our 
bodily condition. Now, these thoughts, or imagina- 
tions, bear the same relations to our spiritual bod- 
ies and senses that their outward clothing in 
architecture, machinery, painting, sculpture, or 
other forms, do to our material bodies and senses. 
And w^hen we have cast off these outward bodies, 
we shall come into the same practical working re- . 
lations with all spiritual things that we now do, 
through these bodies, to their outward signs ; and 
so the very essence of all high art will be present 
to our spiritual senses. 

In that world, we shall find the real and endur- 
ing basis of all the forms of use and beauty — bat 



And Immortality. 117 

more especially the latter — which have been re- 
vealed to us in this. Painting, sculpture, music, 
poetry, are all revealed to us here through material 
and sensible forms. And yet these forms fail of 
presenting the full and true conception in the 
mind of the artist; for no artist has yet been 
able to clothe his best conception in an exactly 
corresponding outward symbol. Nor has any one 
ever yet been able to conceive the highest ideal of 
his own art ; for the reason that his bodily condi- 
tion and relations must, to a degree, cloud and ob- 
scure his spiritual vision : while in the spiritual 
world no material signs of art are wanted ; and no 
labor is required to produce them, beyond the mere 
conception of the ideal itself; and whenever we 
wish to surround or possess ourselves with forms 
of beauty in art, we have only to think them out, 
in order to have them. 

So all the glorious colors of the rainbow have 
their home in the spiritual world, — for our pris- 
matic philosophy begins there, — and are used by 
the powers of that world, or the great artist of 
nature, to give an endless variety of beautiful 
hues and tints to herbage and flowers ; and al- 
though these wither and fade, and theil* colors de- 
part, they are not annihilated, but only gone 
home again to the boundless fields of light, from 
whence they came for a while to cheer and adorn 
our weary pilgrimage. For light is the universal 



Ii8 The Problem of Life 

law; and darkness only exists as in shadows. 
There they are all of them ; and we may see them 
again in more glorious tints and hues than ever. 

What is true of sights is true of sounds. There 
are infinite, grand choruses in the spiritual world, 
with their transporting harmonies and melodies, 
which we hear not because of this dull barrier of 
the flesh. Yet we conceive somewhat of these 
harmonies ; and so with our own voices, and in- 
struments made of materials like our bodies, we 
break over this fleshly wall, and so let the impris- 
oned soul hear and have fore-gleams and ante-pasts 
of that which is to come, 

I think I have sufficiently illustrated, that, 
while the material body perishes and falls away, 
the soul or its affections never waste or grow old. 
Indeed, the affections are more chastened, tender, 
refined, and unselfish in the aged than in the 
young. So that our word " age " has the meaning 
of ripeness, mellowness. 

And I think, further, that in following out this 
course of reasoning will be found the certain proofs 
of the spiritual world, with all its grand, infinite, 
and eternal realities. 

And this world is henceforth no longer a dim 
and shadowy region, peopled with the vague, in- 
definable, and fearful spectres of an uncertain myth- 
ology ; but, to the eye of reason and philosophy, 
it is a real and substantial world, populated with 



And Immortality. 119 

real men and women \ a world of life and light 
and joy, with its outlines and details so clearly and 
strongly defined, that wh^t was once only/eZ^ as a 
divine inspiration, in the most exalted moments 
of the most exalted souls, and uttered in the glow- 
ing language of rapt and beatific vision, now comes 
within the scope of demonstrative knowledge, and 
so into the domain of established science. 

And now, after /all this statement of facts, and 
reasonings therefrom, the question may arise, as 
to the where of this spiritual world ? And while 
it is e£|,sy to say where it is, it is impossible to say 
with any certainty where it is not. For it is where- 
soever God is ; and that, as I have shown, is every 
where, For there is no place or point in space 
which is not included in His illimitable Life sensa- 
tion and power. We a;re enveloped in His folds, 
and He wraps us about like an invisible garment. 
We walk and work, and all our life and being are 
in Him ; and He fills and occupies the universe 
which must be as boundless as space itself, which, 
to my finite mind, is absolutely illimitable. For 
I cannot conceive an end to space, beyond which 
there is no space. 

Now, it must be seen from this foreshowing, that 
these measureless fields are no vacuums, but every 
point in them is permeated and animated by the 
All-comprehending life, and guided by the All-com- 
prehending wisdom pf Qod j wl^ose power not 



I20 The Problem of Life 

only keeps the solar, but all the stellar systems in 
motion and due relations to each other, hut im- 
parts His vital forces to all the living forms, he 
they vegetable, beast, man, or other, which people 
this same universe ; in the same way as the vital 
operations in a man are carried on by the forces 
in his own being. 

Those bodies of matter — the suns, planets, stars, 
which are scattered throughout the extent of this 
infinite space, and held in proper relations to each 
other by the mighty reach of gravitation, and the 
laws of that form of substance, or the vital forces 
of Nature — serve as depots of materials, and 
workshops or laboratories, where the All-Soul, the 
Infinite union of Father and Mother, is forever 
clothing or moulding His living ideas or concep- 
tions in outward forms, and so making them 
living, conscious beings. These, having received 
the rudiments of knowledge and culture here, 
break their earthy moulds, cast off their outward 
bodies, and with them all material ties to these 
planets, and enter upon another state of existence 
with all its new relationships. 

I have shown that power is known to us only 
through its material manifestations. That ideas 
and imaginations are substantive realities, having 
their existence, basis, and nativity in the spiritual 
world ; and we are only separated from a more 
perfect knowledge of them by this material body. 



And Immortality. 12 1 

The body, then, is only a thin veil between us and 
a perception and knowledge of these boundless 
fields of life and power, which lie all around, and 
are really pressing upon us. A blind man walks 
in the midst of light, but does not see it, though 
laved in its floods. Remove the opaque film, or 
whatever obstructs his vision, and he sees the 
floods of light, and other things by which he is 
surrounded. So we live and walk in the spiritual 
world, here and now, but know it not because of 
this material veil. We cast off this veil, or these 
bodies, by their death : in other words, we remove the 
films and obstructions from our spiritual senses, 
and find ourselves in the immediate presence of 
spiritual things. So we need not travel one step 
in space to find the spiritual world. For science, 
knowledge, will yet demonstrate that the spirit- 
ual world really includes the material, with all 
space, and all that space contains, while the ma- 
terial world is only used to symbolize and body 
forth the spiritual. 

The body, which served as a weight to keep us 
down here, being gone, we are no longer bound to 
this planet : we are simply free to stay or go ; for 
our spiritual bodies have no more weight by our 
material standards than thoughts or affections 
have, and hence are not subject to the laws of 
matter ; the attraction of gravitation has no longer 
11 



122 The Problem of Life 

any hold upon us, and our desires are the motive 
powers to carry our spiritual bodies, as they now 
carry our thoughts, whithersoever we will. 

So, this veil of the flesh being rent away, the 
illimitable universe is opened to us ; and, if our 
affections are rightly chastened and refined, we may 
commence its unending rounds of contempla- 
tions, enjoyments, studies, delights. There is no 
danger of falling to the earth, or any planet, now, 
unless your desires are of the earth, earthy ; for 
the material tie is severed, and you are free. 

" No more thy wing shall touch gross earth | 
Far under shall its shadows flee, 
And all its sounds of woe qr mirth 
Grow strange to thee. 
Thou wilt not mingle in its noise, 
Nor court its joys." 

For the infinite is yours, with all its grand 
realities and unchanging splendors. For here 
indeed is beauty unfading, harmonies unending, 
flowers which never wither, and fruits which 
never decay. Here are landscapes which no mor- 
tal artist's pencil can ever sketch ; with glebe and 
lawn, and hill and vale, and the tops of its Delectable 
Mountains piercing the eternal heavens. All the 
bright visions of rapt seer and inspired prophet 
are more than realized in the spiritual world ; for 
these visions are not " baseless fabrics," but are 
founded on the realities of that world j and so on 
the nature of thingSf 



And Immortality. 123 



** There's a spring In the wood by my sunny home, 

Afar from the dark sea's tossing foam.* 

Oh I the gusli of that fountain is sweet to hear, 

As a song from the shore to the sailor's ear ; 

And the sparkle which up to tQe sun it throws, 

Through the feathery fern, and the wild olive boughs; 

And the gleam on its path as it steals away 

Into deeper shades from the sultry day; 

And the large water lilies that o'er its bed 

Their pearly leaves to the soft light spread,—. 

Tliey haunt me I I dream of that bright spring's flow : 

I thirst for its rills like a wounded roe. 
Be still, sad heart, suppress thy wailing cry; 
For in full view before thee sweet opening visions lie. 

" Oh I the glad sounds of the joyous earth : 

The notes of the singing cicala's mirth ; 

The murmurs that live in the mountain pines; 

The sighing of winds as the day declines ; 

The wings flitting home through the crimson glow 

That steeps the woods when the sun is low ; 

The voice of the night-bird which sends a thrill 

Through the forest leaves when the winds are still, — 

I hear them : around me they rise, they swell ; 

They claim back my spirit with hope to dwell; 

They come with the glow of the fresh spring.time, 

And awaken my youth in its hour of prime. 
All forms of earthly beauty are only symbols given 
Of forms more beauteous still to be revealed in heaven. 

" 'Tis there I Down the mountains I see the sweep 
Of its wondrous forests, the rich and deep, 
With the burden and glory of flowers they wear, 
Floating upborne on the blue summer air; 
And the I'ght pouring through them in tender gleams, 
And the flashing forth of a thousand streams. 
In the deptfjs of its woods, there the shadows rest 
Massy and still on the greensward's breast; 

* " And there was no more sea." — Rev. xxi. 1. The sea is a symbol 
of upheaval and unrest. —" There the weary are at rest." 



124 T^^^ Problem of Life 

There the rocks resound with the water's play, 
I hear the sweet laugh of my fount give way. 
Give way I Earth's booming surge its tempests roar, 
Its toils and cares shall vex my soul no more ! " 

And all these boundless, grand, and beautiful 
realities may be ours whenever we have attained 
to that condition of cultured and unselfish love 
which will enable us to use them wisely and well. 
And we may repose in the delightful tranquillity of 
their sylvan shades, or journey from planet to 
planet, from sun to sun, or from star to star, on 
through the most enjoyable travel, without ex- 
haustion or weariness. Not as here, by smoky car 
or toilsome coach, exposed to a thousand perils ; 
but, as just now stated, by mere effort of the will, 
for that is all the motive power required. And 
our travelling companions shall be only such as 
are held in the bond of a common sympathy. No 
unwelcome intruders there. For all societies are 
based on mutual fellowship, and unity of sentiment 
and feeling. 

Hitherto, the hard, mechanical, and cold anato- 
mizing methods of ^scientific and metaphysical in- 
quiries and investigations have furnished little or 
no consolation to such as are burdened with a 
sense of the evils, wrongs, imperfections, and suffer- 
ings which are incidental to our material condi- 
tions and relations ; and none at all to those 
whose own lives have been full of loss, sadness, 
and sorrow. 



i 



And Immortality. 125 

But the methods here presented must show, 
that, of all the things we have ever known or loved, 
" the time-shadows alone have perished, or are 
perishable ; " that conscious, individual immor- 
tality is inherent in the human soul in virtue of 
its existence as a living, organized thought of God. 
So when the bereaved heart cries out in agony on 
seeing the earthly vesture of its friend fall away, 
" Heaven ! is the white tomb of our loved one, 
who died from our arms, and must be left behind 
us there, which rises in the distance like a pale, 
mournfully-receding milestone, to tell us how many 
toilsome, uncheered miles we have journeyed on 
alone, but a pale spectral illusion ? Is the lost 
friend still mysteriously here, even as we are here 
mysteriously with God ? " — its griefs may be 
turned to gladness and its agonies to joy, in the 
knowledge that " the real being of whatever was, 
and whatever is, and whatever shall be, is now, 
and shall he forevermore." 

For, as before stated, the most real, substantive, 
and enduring facts in nature are mind, soul, im- 
agination, poetry, art. And because our crude 
infantile science, which has spent its childish days 
in the examination of their mere outward clothing, 
but cannot weigh, cut up, analyze, or otherwise 
subject, these essences to its established material 
formularies, as it might a piece of rock, the present 
tendency of " scientific thought " is to doubt their 
11* 



126 The Problem of Life 

self-existence, and to regard tliem somewliat as 
the mere odors, or exhalations, of their garments ; 
and, when the garments are ffayed away and gone, 
the exhalations themselves cease ; and when a 
new garment is formed, then new odors and exha- 
lations result. So they think — or lead some peo- 
ple to believe they do •—that all the wonderful 
mental and emotional phenomena of the Imman 
soul are wholly dependent for theit existence Upon 
material organic bodies, — a fallacy I think already 
sufficiently disposed of. 

But let us be thankful that scientific inquiries 
and investigations have been commenced; and 
patiently await the next advancing, even though 
they be tottering steps, as I am quite sure they 
will be in the right direction. 

It has been shown that the pel'sonal conflicts of 
this life have their origin in the selfish affections 
and discordant elements which are wrought into 
the structure of man , and the unrestrained action 
of this selfishness Would i^esalt in the utter absorp- 
tion, expenditure, and destruction of all the goods 
and blessings of existence, both material and 
spiritual. For it prompts eVery one, " by hook or 
by crook," to get all he can without labor or effort : 
all would consume, none would produce ; and so 
the entire stock of goods and enjoyments would 
soon be exhausted, and the race would starve 
together. The illustrations on this head furnished 



And tinihonality, 127 

by tlie ioafets, drones, scliemefs, thief es, grat^bers^ 
robbers, scoundrels, in the present condition of 
society, prove this statement be^-ond cavil. 

The roaring, devouring lions, the ferocious, 
hungry wolves, bears, tigers^ in human nature, are 
striving to eat up the sheep, cows, ==-- elements of 
milder type. But God does not leave his work 
unfinished. Nor does he finish it in the foundrj^, 
among the furnaces, clay, sand, dirt, and dust 
where it is moulded. He carries it to higher de» 
partments in his vast laboi*atories, higher schools 
of discipline in his university, where these Evolves, 
lions, bedrs, ate made to dwell in peace and love 
with those they once devoured ; and so chastened 
and refined into social love, or love of fraternity, 
which works an entirely opposite effecti 

For that softens the heart, inakes the affections 
tender and sympathetic, and diffuses all goods and 
enjoyments throughout the entire social body. 
And wherever each member of such body shall be 
animated by this spirit, the strife of all will be, 
who will love most, and contribute most to the 
happiness of all. Each will desire to share his 
highest, holiest joy with all, and all with each. 
Every member will produce more tlian he con- 
sumes ; so there will be a constant surplus of good 
things in store, and therein shall they solve the 
grand mystery of heaven. For here, in this state 
of unselfish love, and on these exalted heights of 



128 The Problem of Life 

divine renunciation of exclusive selfishness, will 
be found the only conditions of highest life in the 
spiritual world. 

I have thus far confined myself to science and 
philosophy, or the facts and the reasons of things, 
not having trespassed, I believe, to any great ex- 
tent on the domains of speculative theology. And 
yet my philosophy quarrels with no man's the- 
olog}'^, but embraces everj^ system as educational, 
and hence necessary to our rude infantile condi- 
tion. As I have begun and continued, so shall I 
end ; for it is my purpose to apply the tests of 
reason and science to those problems in human 
life w^iich have forever stumbled our wisest theo- 
logians, and with which problems other than theo- 
logians have rarely ventured to grapple. 

From the view of the origin and relations of 
man heTein presented, it is shown that we are 
the offspring and children of God ; and hence par- 
takers of the Divine character, and so stand in 
the nearest possible relationship to Him. And 
herein we discover the true Emmanuel, — " God 
with us." God in us, and we in Him. For God 
is nowhere else so near the soul as in the soul. 
And when we come to a full recognition of this 
Divine presence within us, we shall here discover 
the true Shechinah, wherein dwells the Holiest ; 
and so be reverent to man, as bodying forth the 
Divine Presence, — the symbol of God. 



Attd Immortality. 129 

In this whole inquiry I have kept aloof from all 
authorities and revelations except those' of Nature. 
And her teachings have led me into full concur- 
rence with the basic doctrine of Jesus. For what- 
ever may be thought of atonements, sacrifices, 
new births, pardons, these were only crude ideals, 
clinging like misty draperies around the theologies 
of his race and times. 

But higher, deeper, grander than all, and un- 
derlying and including all, he felt his Sonship. 
He said, " I am the Son of God ; " and he told 
others to address God as "our Father,'' thereby 
recognizing the sonship of rhankind. And while 
he claimed that others were Sons of God, as well as 
himself, he also claimed to be " the Son of man," 
as well as they; and so regarded, called, and 
treated them as "brethren." And when Peter 
said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the liv- 
ing God," Jesus answered and said, " And I 
also say unto thee. That thou art, Peter." As if 
he had said, " So are you, Peter." And on this 
basic and fundamental truth — the Fatherhood of 
God and the sonship of humanity — will I build. 
And Paul at Athens indorses the statement of the 
Greek poet, that we are the " offspring of God." 
And John exclaims, " Now are we the sons of 
God." 

If it should be thought that the above reading 
of the passage — " Thou art, Peter," &c. — is un- 



130 The Problem of Life 

warranted, let us see if this reading does not fur- 
nish a very common-sense view of what Jesus 
meant to convey, and at the same time furnish a 
satisfactory solution of what has been the occasion 
of a long-standing controversy between Catholic 
and Protestant Christians. 

I am not anxious to save the credit of Jesus on 
any point. Yet I think he has never been more 
than very partially understood by his friends or 
foes. And his greatest enemies are, and have 
been, his professed friends. For the priesthoods in 
all ages have labored to keep their gods at a vast 
and unapproachable distance from the people. 

And the prevailing idea among the Jews, and 
perhaps among most other nations, at that time, — 
and indeed of all nations in all times, — concern- 
ing the relations of man to God, was, and is, mere- 
ly that of creature and Creator. That man is 
simply a creature of God, as a newly-invented de- 
vice or machine is the creature of the inventor ; and 
so no more kinship of sympathy and affection 
exists naturally between God and man, than ex- 
ists between a machine and its builder. God was 
to them the Almighty. And the power of God 
over man was as absolute as that of " the potter 
over the clay ; " and the relations between them as 
cold, heartless, and unfeeling, and his favor only 
to be won by offerings and sacrifices. 

While the deep-seated and overmastering idea 



A?id Immortality. 131 

of Jesus, wliicli he wished to impress upon the 
minds of the people, and which he uttered on 
every fitting occasion, was the intimate and endear- 
ing relationship existing between the Infinite and 
the finite soul, — between God and man; and, 
feeling this relationship so fully in his own being, 
he strove at times to impress it upon others. Yet 
knowing their long-cherished ideas, that God was 
the displeased, angry, almighty Kuler of mankind, 
who cherished towards them the most jealous and 
watchful regard for " the honor of his great name," 
and who dispensed his blessings and curses in the 
ratio of their servility to him, he found a difficulty 
in overcoming these prejudices, and impressing 
upon his hearers the idea of an inherent and 
essential kinship existing between God and man, 
so near and endearing as that of parent and chil- 
dren; that God is really in man, the Father in 
the son. And yet, to those who closely study his 
life and teachings, this appears as the underlying 
and animating spirit of both ; and while he set up 
for himself no claim to extraordinary goodness, 
saying, " There is none good but one, that is God ; " 
he also said, " He that hath seen me hath seen the 
Father." You need not search for God outside your 
own souls, for " the kingdom of God is within you." 
^'B€ ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." And many other 
illustrations, of which the colloquy with Peter fur- 
nishes one of the most pointed. 



132 The Problem of Life 

I think that upon a suhject of this nature, if 
indeed upon any other, Jesus cannot be justly 
charged with trifling. And on this occasion, when 
Peter said, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God," for Jesus to answer, "And I also say 
unto thee. That thou art Peter," &c., was to adopt 
a very grave and formal method of trifling with a 
very grave subject; for he told Peter nothing 
which he did not know as well before. Kor did he 
tell any one, by the received reading, upon what 
rock he would build. For Peter — although his 
name might imply one — was no rock, or basic 
truth, but only a person, and a weak and passion- 
ate one too. And Jesus was too wise to build up 
a grand system of living ethics upon any person 
whatever : he would not build upon himself, but 
only upon some broad, deep, comprehensive princi- 
ple of eternal truth, such as is furnished in the 
above rendering of this passage, which accords so 
well with the general drift of his teachings. 

But I have inserted a comma where none stood 
before. Well, does Inspiration care more for the 
location of commas than for the communication of 
divine truths and fundamental principles ? more 
for mint, anise, and rue, than for justice, mercy, 
and truth ? 

These last are what Jesus always insisted upon ; 
and when by inserting a single comma we shift 
the foundations of a vast religious system from 



And Immortality, 133 

persons to principles, lift the hopes and aspira- 
tions of the human soul from finite son to the 
Infinite Father, help to reveal the dear and inti- 
mate kinship between God and man, and so make 
clearer the underlying principles of his life and 
teachings, I am for supplying the comma, which 
other and abler men should have done before. 

But let us suppose some more modest and retir- 
ing disciple, who believed in him as fully as Peter 
did, had spoken ; and Jesus had " answered, and 
said. Blessed art thou, John, Bar-Zebedee ; for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
my Father which is in heaven. And I say also 
unto thee, that thou art, John ; and upon this rock 
will I build," &c. No name would then have 
limited our interpretation; but we should have 
found the rock, or fundamental principle of all 
peace and harmony, — salvation, — in the very 
exegesis herein presented. 

Although the Christian priesthood, true to the 
universal instinct of the order, have labored through 
the whole era to maintain the absolute divinity of 
Jesus; that he was God, yea, the "very 'God of 
God," temporarily and miraculously clothed in hu- 
man form for the purpose of saving mankind from 
his own wrath, vengeance and curse, through the 
intervention of sacrifices, atonements, pardons, — by 
their special ministrations, — he in his whole spirit 
and life was so intensely human, so filled wtih 



134 "^^^^ Problem of Life 

sympathy, tenderness, and love, that human nature 
itself finds its highest, best, and noblest expressions 
in him, and the Divine love its truest and most 
reverent manifestations in and through the love of 
man. 

And the special mission of Jesus — "the work 
which the Father gave him to do " — was to reveal 
the truth concerning the real paternity of man- 
kind ; to explain, as they were " able to bear it," 
the truth that God is not merely the Creator, but 
he is the Generator, the Father, of mankind ; and 
to save men from the bondage of fear, and to 
bring them into " the liberty of the sons of God." 

His disciples, on hearing "the gracious words 
that proceeded out of his mouth," and witnessing 
those displays of his marv^ellous healing-power, re- 
garded him as something more than human, and 
were ready to concede to him Divine attributes. 
But he told them plainly, that if they would be- 
lieve on him, that is, would enter into his spirit 
and life, they should do even " greater works " 
than he did; and by the same power. I am the 
" second Adam," come to symbolize and represent 
the human race, and to reveal and illustrate to 
you the Divine presence in that race. 

" I and my Father are one." " The truth of 
the Sonship of man, and his unity and oneness 
with God, is revealed to you in me, and all that I 
am, you may become." Such is the deep signifi- 



And Immortality, 135 

cance of his language ; which I think will become 
clearer the more thoughtfully it is studied. 

And this reverent love of God in humanity is 
the great conservative power in the universe of so- 
cial life. And those onJy can enjoy its freedoms 
and immunities who live to its demands. For 
such, having the law of highest life written in 
their affection Sj need no outward restraints ; and 
for this reason they become the heirs and inheritors 
of all things, arfd they will only use them for the 
good and blessing of all: while bonds, fetters, 
limitations, must be upon all selfish souls ; and all 
such will themselves make and apply them, from 
the inevitable necessities of their condition. And 
they will never sufi'er the removal of these bonds 
any faster than they emerge from the lower and 
ruder conditions of life, — whether in the material 
body or out of it, — into the higher and more re- 
fined. And 'not until celestial love takes the 
place of selfish lust will all restraints upon the 
will be entirely removed. And when the portals 
of the infinite world are opened to such as have 
made these attainments, and they are welcomed to 
its loving tasks, they will enter with grateful rev- 
erence, and neither strive nor desire to make any 
selfish appropriation of its goods or enjoyments j 
so there shall be enough and to spare. 

As it is not my purpose, in this essay, to follow 



136 The Problem of Life 

out in extended detail the resultants from any 
grounds herein assumed, I may as well bring it to 
a close by a few brief reflections. 

If the position that all consciousness, sensation, 
emotion, are of the spirit, and belong not essen- 
tially to the body, is true, then the bare fact of 
death works no change in the affections, for the affec- 
tions are wholly spiritual ; and the death of the body 
is but the passage of the man out of his visible, mate- 
rial, into his spiritual relations. Hence persons dy- 
ing in the state of self-love above described, or those 
in the fraternal, are in the same state of affection im- 
mediately after such death as before ; and their rest 
or unrest, enjoyment or suffering, will be wholly 
determined by the state of their affections. But 
all tyrants, oppressors, plunderers, thieves, robbers, 
burglars, murderers, will find their vocations gone 
upon entering the spiritual world. But as Nature's 
spiritual, like her material laws, are inexorable, the 
judgment and condemnation against such, and all 
other sinners, is sure and unerring ; and all must 
reap and eat the bitter harvest of their own sow- 
ing. 

But as education and discipline do not end 
with life in the body, nor the spirit thereby pass 
beyond, but is still under the fullest influence of 
Divine love, the door of progress and highest at- 
tainment is open to all in the spiritual world j 
though multitudes, by reason of the overmaster- 



And Immortality. 137 

ing strength of their selfish affections, may strug- 
gle for ages in their dark and hewildering entan- 
glements, before attaining to full and complete de- 
liverance. And through what purgatorial agonies 
and hells of suffering they must pass before attain- 
ing to this deliverance will depend on the strength 
of the selfish affections in each individual case. 

If the theory of the formation and composition 
of man here presented is true, we should expect to 
find that the combination of so many incongruous 
and discordant elements in one conscious, living 
structure would result not only in producing a dis- 
cordant race of beings, but that individuals of the 
race would also be filled with discordant and con- 
flicting passions, desires, and emotions. And the 
facts prove the theory true ; for the discontents, 
wars, strifes, conflicts, among the families of men, 
and in the individual soul with itself, have exceeded 
the warfares and conflicts of all other beings. 

On this theory we should expect that the means 
would exist in man's very being, as a part of his 
spiritual structure, for bringing all these warring 
and discordant elements into harmony and peace. 
And such is the fact also. And the first and 
chief of these means is moral seiise, or the sense of 
right and wrong, which is planted as an essence in 
the human soul; which, however latent at first or 
for a time, will at length be quickened into life 
and power, and will tell the individual soul that 



138 The Problem of Life 

pain and suffering must inevitably follow certain 
acts, and joy and peace must as inevitably follow 
certain others. And it is this sense which under- 
lies the notion that "God is angry with the 
wicked ; '' and hence the " fearful looking-for of 
judgment," which Paul speaks of And to escape 
this "judgment and fiery indignation" of angry 
gods, men have invented " schemes of atonement 
and pardon," and "plans of salvation," whereby 
they may " flee from the wrath to come." 

Another means of prompting and enabling man 
to conquer his ruder passions, and to bring the best 
within him uppermost, and in the line of his high- 
est needs, is aspiration, or the desire for something 
better and nobler; which keeps him forever dis- 
contented with present attainments. And thus 
God has planted the seeds of man's enlightenment 
and' regeneration as a germinating essence of life, 
in the very core and centre of his being; which 
will give him no rest until he " works out his own 
salvation." And Paul's — " For it is God that 
worketh in you," which for so many centuries 
has been a "sacred mystery," is, after all, only the 
orderly and methodical operation of natural forces. 
And the necessities of man's moral nature have 
prompted him to seek out and invent methods of 
overcoming, subduing, and refining his ruder pas- 
sions, as the necessities of his material relations 
have impelled him to invent the meaus of supply- 
ing his material wants. 



And Immortality. 139 

In man's ruder states, lie naturally falls upon 
the ruder methods in hoth his relations. His 
notions of God are crude. Man is then alighting, 
vengeful savage. So is his God. His tools and 
implements are also rude. Yet j'ou must helieve 
in both, his God and his tools. And any in- 
novation upon either — God or tools — is a 
" heresy " too " damnable " for endurance. As 
all men receive so much and no more truth than 
they can at any time bear, each in his own way 
thinks he has got it all ; or, if any more exists, it 
will only supplement and confirm what he now 
has, and so, of course, can never supplant and 
supersede it. Hence, every improvement or re- 
form, in both spiritual and material methods, has 
run the gauntlet of persecution and hostility from 
the beginning. The history of Christianity fur- 
nishes a notable illustration on this head ; and 
for the reason that its truths were the highest 
revealed at the time. And narrow-minded, crude 
men bound them down with creeds, dogmas, for- 
mularies, and said, "This is the end: we have it 
all here in these books ; and cursed be he who 
takes one word jfrom, or adds one word to them." 
And this bondage to books and creeds is absolute 
over the minds of a vast majority of people in the 
most enlightened portions of the world to-day. 
And only a few of the most fearless thinkers have 
dared to break away from this most oppressive 
tyranny. 



140 The Problem of Life 

The older types of Cliristian theology, and the 
modern " evangelical," with their vast hierarchies, 
systems, salvations, are based upon the hj^poth- 
esis, that when God created the universe, and 
came to that very small part of his work, the 
conception and formation of man, his genius 
utterly failed, the spiritual mechanism went 
contrary to his will and expectation ; and instead 
of going patiently at work to remedy its defects, 
as a human inventor does, and making it perfect 
in all its parts, powers, and motives, got angry, 
and cursed his own invention, and sentenced it 
to eternal damnation ; or, according to the 
" Westminster divines," " doomed him to the 
pains of hell forevermore." 

Nothing hut human ignorance, crudity, and 
folly could have framed such a theory. For these 
same theorizers must admit that man, in all his 
powers and possibilities, in all his. passions, im- 
pulses, and motives, in his entirety^ is the concep- 
tion and offspring of God. Indeed, I think I have 
sufficiently shown, that not a quality, characteris- 
tic, or force enters into the structure of the human 
soul, but enters there, and is there, in the order 
of God, by and through the generative processes 
of nature. And so man had no more control over 
his antecedents, or the causes which produced him, 
and made him man, than an ox had over the 
causes which made and determined him to be an 



And Immortality, 141 

ox. And man is no more to blame for being that 
which constitutes him man, than an ox is for being 
an ox. 

The attractions, repulsions, desires, motives, 
passions, in man, constitute his spiritual mechan- 
ism ; and their balance and adjustment in the 
human soul are purely, so to speak, God's contriv- 
ance. Man is precisely what God intended he 
should be. And his temporary sins and sufferings, 
however grievous, are only the methods by which 
the highest wisdom and love compel him to work 
out his own highest good. And so in theology, as 
in all other things, he must learn wisdom and 
goodness by first running into folly and evil. And 
so, as before stated, all the creeds, and the cursing 
growing out of them, are as normal to a state of 
moral and religious crudity, unripeness, as sour sap 
is to unripe fruit. 

But truth is Infinite ; and its higher forms will 
be discovered or revealed as man advances to 
higher states of growth. Hence, as the mind un- 
folds into broader perceptions of truth, it will as 
naturally reject the old books, creeds, theologies, 
of ruder ages and states, as it will the old ploughs, 
tools, machines, modes of building, travel, &c., of 
those states. And the world is full of men who 
are now saying, " Bind yourself, if you must, to 
Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Swedenborg, or the Pope, 
but hinder us not ; for we are not barnacled hulks. 



142 The Problem of Life. 

fast anchored to past dogmas, however venerahle. 
Our lives are onward and upward ; and we rest 
not until we find the highest and best." Eor 



'' The world advances, and in time outgrows the laws 
That in our fathers' days were best; " 



and, doubtless, after us some purer scheme will be 
shaped out by wiser heads than ours, made wiser 
by the steady growth of truth." 

And so we can all afford patiently to await the 
accumulating good, which the future is constantly 
adding to the past. 



APPENDIX. 



Since this work was put in type, I have read an 
ossay, delivered in South-place Chapel, London, 
England, " to a large and interested audience,'^ 
by A. Jayram, an educated Hindoo prince, on " The 
State of Scientific Thought in England ; " by which 
the lecturer endeavors to prove that the human 
soul, separated from a material body, is " an in- 
comprehensible nonsense ; a mental negation ; a 
mere nothing:" that the "phenomena of mind 
are the mere accidents of matter.*' 

As M. D. Conway introduces it to the American 
public, with the remark that " he cannot believe 
that any one who reads this lecture will imagine 
that there is a single missionary in India compe- 
tent to deal with the points it so powerfully makes 
against the animism that underlies the Christian 
religion ; " and as this may be considered as able 
an argument as can be made on that side, — I 
here present the most " powerful " of these 
" points," with such hurried criticisms as occurred 

143 



144 Appefidix. 

to me on reading them ; for I really hare no time 
to examine tliem with greater care. And if they 
are personal, the personality is merely illustrative. 
And when I speak of A. Jayram, I only take him 
as a representative of materialism. 

I pass over the author's ungenerous flings, 
and contemptuous epithets, bestowed upon reli- 
gionists, or Spiritualists, as wholly irrelevant, and 
utterly unsuited to any thoughtful and considerate 
inquiry. 

I quote from this lecture : — 

" The first thing, then, that I should call your 
attention to, is the amazement, bordering almost 
on incredulity, with which the Hindoo contem- 
plates the superstitions and prejudices that reign 
still rampant in this country, — not among the ig- 
norant simply, nor among the so-called educated 
Englishmen alone, whose scraps of Greek and 
Latin lore, with scattered recollections of dead 
forms of scholasticism, serve only to render them 
mere pedants or walking intellectual mummies ; but 
even among those who are not unacquainted with 
the results of modern science. ^ay, scientists 
themselves are not unfrequently found subject to 
their pernicious influence. 

"]N^ow, of these, there is none which has wound 
itself more intimately with the very fibres of our 
emotional nature, than the one which attaches a 



Appendix, 145 

peculiar importance and mystery to human des- 
tiny ; the idea, namely, that man, in his mental 
organization, is peculiarlj'- distinct from all other 
creation ; that he possesses something in him which 
has no analogue elsewhere in nature ; that, in short, 
he bears in him an immortal soul, which, in its es- 
sential purity, is completely unconditioned and unin- 
fluenced by matter." 

This overstates the case. Few, if any, believe 
the soul is " completely unconditioned and uninflu- 
enced by matter.'' I think the general belief 
among all classes of Spiritualists is, that the soul 
is developed and unfolded in and through matter, 
and so is, to a great extent, conditioned and influ- 
enced by it. So here the writer is only knocking 
down one of his own ghosts. 

But whence are these emotions ? and how came 
this winding process ? Are they and it altogether 
material ? 

" Whatever may be the right explanation of the 
genesis of this strange fallacy, nobody can deny 
that it has exercised a most unhappy influence 
upon the course of human thought and prog- 



"This strange fallacy" had its genesis in the 
deepest consciousness of the highest and most 



146 Appendix. 

thoroTigUy cultured human souls. And it will.be 
generated in A. Jayram's, whenever he swings hack 
to an equilibrium. He is flushed and carried away 
with a smattering of materialistic " science." And 
because he cannot take God between his thumb 
and fingers, pick up human souls with a pair of 
forceps, melt down thoughts, ideas, affections in a 
crucible, he denies the existence of them all, ex- 
cept as mere forms, or " accidents of matter." 

So far from having " exercised a most unhappy 
influence upon the course of human thought and 
progress," I, for one, affirm that what he calls 
"this strange fallacy" has furnished the highest 
possible motive to the course of human culture, 
progress, and attainment. 

The lecturer continues : — 

" To the same source is to be attributed the 
extreme ignorance that you find, even in educated 
men, in respect to the modes of production 
or combination of the simplest facts connected with 
our psychological existence. As to any correct 
apprehension of the true principles regulating the 
essential dependence and causal interactions be- 
tween mental and material phenomena, the thing 
must continue to be impossible, as it has been 
hitherto, so long as scientific men themselves are 
under the delusion that the methods of inductive 
investigation they employ in other departments are 



Appendix. 147 

inapplicable in tliis, since, ex hypothesis mind is 
spiritual, and transcends all conditions of matter. 
If the same rigorous modes of reasoning, and the 
same precision of language, by means of which we 
discover and describe the laws of phenomena in 
every other department of nature, were carried con- 
sistently and unflinchingly into the domain of 
mind, there would be little doubt left in any one, 
however prejudiced, either as to its real nature, or 
the terms to be employed in the expression of its 
relations to other physical phenomena.'' 

Then our educated men are extremely ignorant 
" in respect of the modes of production or combi- 
nation of the simplest facts connected with our 
psychological existence," merel}'- because they be- 
lieve, or are at least haunted with the belief, that 
man " bears in him an immortal soul ; " but our 
author, having no such soul, at any rate, no be- 
lief in it, is able to deal with mind and matter by 
the same rules. And so we will attend upon him, 
and see how he applies " the same rigorous modes 
of reasoning, and the same precision of language," 
to mind that he does to other departments of na- 
ture, and learn to what extent he will illuminate 
his subject. For, judging from his language, one 
would suppose that all the secrets of nature were 
open and naked to him ; that his rigorous modes of 
reasoning, and precision of language, had enabled 



148 Appendix. 

him to solve all mysteries, so that he knows just 
what life, mind, emotion, sensation, — all the powers 
of mind — synthesis, analysis, comparison, inven- 
tion, — are. For all these phenomena, we shall 
soon learn, are " the mere accidents of matter." 
And that matter itself is "neither more or less 
than the permanent possibilities of sensation." 
He continues : — 

" Beason is perfect unity. Its principles are as 
constant as the laws of the universe around us. 
Rather, they are translations of the highest uni- 
formities of collocation and sequence in external 
phenomena, into the language of nervous energy, 
in its responsive vibrations to the general harmo- 
nies of the universe." 

No lack of high-sounding words here. But ap- 
ply these laws and principles to the phenomena 
of mind, under the same limitations you do to mat- 
ter, and you are utterly powerless to explain the 
simplest mental or vital manifestation. Tell us, if 
you can, by what chemical formulary you think 
and reason. You say thinking wastes the brain. 
Yes ; but it is not waste of brain which causes 
thought, but the mental action which causes the 
waste. 

Now, as chemistry is the nearest allied of any 
branch of material knowledge to life, including also 



Appendix. 149 

mind, apply its principles to an explanation of 
their phenomena, including your controversy 
with theologians and Spiritualists generally. 
Prof. Barker might help by telling you that 
" thought force is only converted carbon." The 
conversion of carbon is constant. Thought is infi- 
nitely variable. You cannot bind or limit it by 
any chemical conditions or combinations. Your 
ether, or laughing-gas, only opens the door to its 
wider and more expansive range. And if an over- 
dose 'of carbon causes an opposite effect, it is be- 
cause it weighs down, and so burdens the brain as 
to render it unfit for vital or mental use, like a 
tool too heavy to handle. E-emember, it is mind 
using matter, in all cases, and not matter using 
mind. 

Certain atoms of mq,tter will always act pre- 
cisely the same, iinder the same conditions. If 
life and mind are the mere products, " accidents," 
of matter, then they must always present the same 
relative phenomena, under the same relations to 
matter. That is to say ; that whenever you 
wished to produce any given mental phenomenon, 

— a philosopher, a scientist, inventor, reformer, 
statesman, a blockhead, or other, — you have only 
to arrange your carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 

— bones, muscles, brain, nerves, — according to a 
given formulary in any case, and the required 
mental phenomenon will invariably result. Will it ? 



150 Appendix. 

" First, then, as respects the spirituality or inde- 
pendent existence of the soul. On what founda- 
tion is this supposition based ? " 

" So far as our knowledge of its positive mani- 
festations goes, all appearances are dead against 
such an hypothesis. The series of phenomena, 
which in their concrete entirety we denominate the 
soul, or mind, is never seen independently of the 
body. Further, they are seen to be connected 
more intimately with one particular part qi its 
structure, — the nervous system ; more especially 
with that part of it which we call th« brain." 

This supposition is based upon this strong foun- 
dation : that essence is indestructible; and mind — 
soul — being the highest of all essences, whether in 
or out of a material body, is absolutely indestruc- 
tible, as to all its characteristics and attributes. 

And as to its never being " seen independently 
of the body,'' it is never seen at all. Can you- 
cognize mind by a single sense ? You only know 
of its operations. If soul is the product of a body, 
why does the body begin to decay from the mo- 
ment the soul leaves it? Matter is always and 
everywhere the product of mind. Mind is no- 
where the product of matter. Mind alone shapes, 
fashions, composes, decomposes matter. And a 
fool, looking on, supposes that the mind is only 
produced, — evolved by the action of matter. 



Appendix. 151 

And so he supposes the soul ceases to exist when 
it leaves the body ; while, in truth, it is the body 
which ceases to exist and falls apart, on being 
left by the soul, as that alone formed and kept it 
together. 

The mind is connected with the brain and nerves 
for the reason that these are the most highly 
refined parts of the bodily structure. If soul, or 
mind, is the mere product of matter, then the more 
solid and firm the matter, the greater and more 
powerful should be its products. The greater the 
hulk and heft of a man's body, the greater his 
mind. But such is not the case. The farther 
you go from the grosser forms of matter, the more 
refined and sublimated it is, the nearer you ap- 
proach the conditions necessary for the activity 
of mind. And so mental action begins in the 
brain, and is transmitted through the nerves to 
the muscles, and causes their movements, — " con- 
.tractility." That is '^science." 

"Each act of volition, each development of 
thought or sensation, is attended with, and is 
impossible without, a certain amount of nervous 
action, and a certain rate of waste of the nervous tis- 



Yes : but it is the action of mind which causes 
the waste of the nervous tissue. The brain and 



152 Appendix. 

nerves being the tools, or organs of mind, must, of 
course, wear out with use. But it is tl^e use which 
causes tlie wear, and not the wear which causes 
the use. The mind is brought into working rela- 
tions V ith matter, tlirougli a material machine or 
body. This body is man's primary tool ; then he 
further invents secondary tools of wood or iron, to 
increase his power over matter. Now, the mind 
itself no more wears out with the wear of its 
primary tools, — brain, nerves, &c., than it does 
with its secondary ones, — its axes, saws, &c. 
The waste follows action. The action is not the 
result of waste. The mind grows with use, the 
body alone wastes by use. 

A man's axe wears out because he uses it. Our 
author would have us believe that the use is in 
consequence, or because, of the wear. Now, if 
mental action comes before waste, — and everybody 
who thinks knows that it does, just as surely as 
weariness follows action, — then mind is before 
matter; and is above and superior to it. And 
in all formative processes, as in all the activities 
of Nature, mind is antecedent, and all the forms 
and relations of matter are consequent. Mind be- 
fore matter, now and forever. 



" But there is yet another class of considerations, 
which contribute to a further corroboration of the 
above argument. In the first place, the phenomena 



Appendix. 153 

of mind do not emerge into view suddenly, or 
-per saltum, when we approach man. They exhibit 
a progressive intensity of complication, beginning 
from the lowest forms of at least vertebrate life, 
where they exist in their most rudimentary condi- 
tion, till they reach their highest development 
and fulneiss in man. Secondly, these slow transi- 
tions in psychological evolution, are not indepen- 
dent or arbitrary, but go hand in hand with equally 
slow advances in nervous complexity, beginning 
with its scarce differentiated existence as brain in 
the amphloxus, and ending in the grand swell 
and overlapping proportions of the human cere- 
brum. These, and a host of other considerations, 
which might be brought together if space and 
time permitted, negative conclusively every other 
hypothesis than the one which alone science can 
indorse." 

We are too often befooled by this word " sci- 
ence." It seems almost marvellous to many 
minds, as if it had solved all mysteries. But what 
is it, other than knowledge? And this phrase, 
" Science can indorse," means neither more nor 
less than what is known. And what is knoiun on 
this subject ? Eeally, but very little, with any 
degree of certainty. Although we feel quite sure 
of this, that, to those beings which Nature gives 
the largest minds, she gives the largest mental 



154 Appendix. 

organs, in her gradually unfolding and ascending 
scale of creations. The great mind of Nature 
adapts these organs, tools, to the minds of her 
offspring, in the same way and for the same 
reasons that she does their whole physical struc- 
tures. The brain is adapted to the mind, and not 
the mind adapted tb the brain. The tools adapted 
to their use, and not the use resulting from the 
tools. I must insist on putting things right end 
foremost. 

*'In the first place, the phenomena of mind do 
not emerge into view suddenl^r, when we approach 
man. They exhibit a progressive intensity of com- 
plication." 

What causes the mind to " emerge into view " 
at all, and to "exhibit a progressive intensity 
of complication " ? Why, matter, tumbled about, 
shelter-skelter, harem-scarem, topsy-turvey ; and 
these " slow transitions in psychological evolution, 
beginning with the amphioxus, and ending in the 
human cerebrum," were the accidental result, 
w^hich might not happen again. 

But what caused the matter to tumble ? Oh, — 
nothing. It tumbled itself, without any cause, 
purpose, or design. How could it have any ? for, 
if you admit design, you must admit a designing 
mind ; and that would knock materialism right on 
the head. 



Appendix. 155 

" In other words, if we believe other forms of 
energy as strictly dependent upon matter, or func- 
tions of it, and do not therefore believe in the 
possibility of their separate existence, or erect 
them into spiritual entities, transcending all laws 
of matter, we have no other alternative than to 
follow the same course in regard to mind. We 
should consider it, in short, as one particular form 
of energy or force, — a peculiar function of matter, 
resulting from a peculiar differentiation of it." 

Energy acts upon matter, and through it, but is 
no more a function of it than water is the function 
of a mill, or steam is the function of an engine. And 
so you may " follow the same course in regard to 
mind ; " for mind being a form, indeed, the highest 
form, of energy, acts in the same way. We are 
told that mind results from a peculiar " differentia- 
tion " of matter. Let us see what is meant by 
differentiation, and what force it has in this con- 
nection. According to AVebster, it means, — in 
logic, " the act of describing a thing, by giving 
its specific difference." In iiiathematics, " the act 
or process of differentiating." In physiology, ''the 
production of a diversity of parts by a process of 
evolution." 

So this word means a great deal. And all its 
meaning tells directly against materialism, and 



156 Appendix. 

does not help it one whit. For, in every one of 
these relations, mind is an absolute 'prerequisite 
to any action ; for nothing but mind can describe 
a thing, perform the act of differentiating or the 
process of evolution. And, according to A. Jay- 
ram's theory, one, two, or all three of these pro- 
cesses must be performed upon matter before mind 
can result from it. And mind alone can perform 
the process,^ or differentiation. Which is to say, 
mind cannot exist until after a certain act is per- 
formed ; and nothing but mind can perform the 
act to begin with. And so, of course, mind can 
never exist at all. That is what comes of your 
" rigorous modes of reasoning " from false prem- 
ises. 

And this is what our philosopher calls a "com- 
plete overthrow of the theological doctrine of soul " ! 
It is really hard tp be content with a single ex- 
clamation point, in view of such a wonderful exhi- 
bition of logic. 

" Complete as is this oyerthrow of the theologi- 
cal doctrine of the soul, the contest, simply as 
contest, is far from being at an end here." 

True enough. I have not done with you yet. And 
you must not be so sure that you have overthrown 
the doctrine of soul ; for, in this very " contest," 
you are a soul trying to disprove your own exist- 



Appendix. 157 

ence ; and that all the "grand swell and overlap- 
ping proportions " of your brain have no other use 
than to generate some exhalations which cease to 
exist on the disruption of your body ; and, on your 
theory, Nature reaches no results at all commen- 
surate with the amount of labor which she per- 
forms. For as fast as she accidentally forms men, 
instead of passing them on and up to higher states 
of existence, where she may round out and fulfil 
their beings, with the opportunities of realizing 
their best and highest ideals, like the great blun- 
derer that she is, she accidentally puts her foot on 
them and crushes every one of them back again 
into the nonentity from whence they came, 
like a huge mill, eternally grinding to no pur- 
pose. And as that is to be the final upshot of all 
your labors, toils, struggles, with this and all other 
problems, you might as well have staid in India, 
crept into the nearest jungle, been made a break- 
fast of by the first hungry tiger that came along, 
and so saved yourself all this bootless trouble. 

"Scientific language itself, it is said, in redu- 
cing the phenomena of mind to mere accidents of 
matter, is obliged to distinguish them as manifes- 
tations of a certain force or energy." 

Is it possible that the phenomena of our author's 
mind, while he is in a struggle with this meta- 



158 Appendix. 

physico-scientific subject, are only "the mere 
accidents of matter " ? And is it not a little strange 
that these "accidents'' should methodize them- 
selves in such orderly form, and argue so ably to 
prove that the mill causes the water to run, and 
the carriage draws the horse along ? And, more- 
over, is it not a little strange these " accidents " 
should have such wonderful inventive powers, — 
spending in some cases years of hard study upon 
a single problem, and bringing forth at length the 
steam-engine, the electric telegraph, such engi- 
neering projects as the Suez canal, the Atlantic 
cable, railroads across continents, analyzing sun- 
light, starlight, weigliing the planets, and doing so 
many other very odd things. E-eally, the accidents 
of matter are truly wonderful, viewed from a " sci- 
entific " stand-point. Great is science ! And it be- 
ing so great, will he please tell us, with "rigorous 
methods of reasoning and precision of language," 
just w^iat kind of ma'ter love is the accident of; 
what kind hope, what pride, ambition, jealousy, 
honesty, knavery, invention, " patient continuance 
in well doing ; " and also the kind which accident- 
ally set our lecturer's mind off on this over-confi- 
dent but vain attempt to prove his own purpose, in 
writing his essay, was no purpose after all ; that it 
only resulted in the unintelligible and purposeless 
hurly-burly of some muck. 



Appendix. 159 

" But granting, for the sake of argument, what is 
not true, — as will be seen presently, — granting 
that force is something quite distinct from matter, 
and that the particular force called mind is quite 
distinct, again, from all other forces, I yet fail to 
see how this admission can serve the purposes of 
theology. So long as force however distinct from 
matter, and that particular form of it known as 
mind however distinct from all other forms of it, 
are possible only in connection with, through, and 
by means of, matter, so long they inust continue 
useless to the theologian. If they are never known 
to exist independently of matter, and if there is 
not a particle of evidence for a contrary supposi- 
tion, what becomes of the spirituality of the mind or 
soul ? What becomes of its supposed future exist- 
ence, independent of and unconditioned by matter ? " 

Spiritualists and theologians do not hold that 
mind — soul — is necessarily " independent of and 
unconditioned by matter." Many believe the spirit- 
ual body to be a highly refined and sublimated form 
of matter. And so they believe in the eternity of 
matter, as the outward clothing and expression of 
mind, and that, in some form, it is always connect- 
ed with and attendant upon mind. And so the 
question " of the spirituality of soul," or " the 
purposes of theology," are not in the least affected 
by the presumed difficulties above suggested. And 



i6o Appendix. 

as to ^^ what becomes of its supposed future exist- 
ence," does the lecturer jump to the conclusion 
again, that a thing does not exist because he can- 
not subject it to the test of one or more of his out- 
ward senses ? 

" There is yet another aspect of the question, 
still more ridiculous. We can aiford to make one 
more admission to our theologian, which, though 
giving up every thing we have been contending for, 
will not lessen one jot of his difficulties, but will 
only render his position the more ludicrous, because 
of his helplessness, even when his opponents are 
prepared to help him to the full length of his own 
inordinate wishes. To crown our chivalrous cour- 
tesy, then, let us even grant that the soul is capa- 
ble of a spiritual existence, completely indepen- 
dent of and unconditioned by matter. But can 
we have even the faintest conception of such an 
existence ? Can any of our supposed longings and 
aspirations, which the theologian is ready to aban- 
don reason itself to satisfy, be satisfied by such an 
incomprehensible supposition ? The thoughts of 
our disembodied spirits cannot be any thing like 
our thoughts, since they are not produced under 
material conditions like ours. How they may be 
produced, or what they may be like, we do not 
know, — we cannot know, since all our knowledge 
is circumscribed by material conditions, whether of 



Appendix. i6i 

production or definition ; so that its thoughts are 
nothing like our thoughts. In other words, if lan- 
guage is to have any meaning, its thoughts are 
no thoughts, its sufferings are no sufferings, its 
enjoyments are no enjoyments. In short, it is an 
enigma, a riddle, or rather an incomprehensible 
nonsense, a mental negation, a mere nothing. And 
yet it is for this mental nonentity — this inconceiv- 
able something, which may be any thing or nothing, 
for aught we may care — that our theologian is 
ready to sacrifice consistency, fairness, common- 
sense, reason, — every thing and all." 

There's a good long extract, with some "chival- 
rous courtesy" in it, to help along the theologian 
" to the full length of his own inordinate wishes." 
But we are told that " the thoughts of our disem- 
bodied spirits cannot be any thing like our thoughts, 
since they are not produced under material condi- 
tions like ours." 

The lecturer was born in Hindostan. He grew up 
nnder the peculiar "material conditions" and sur- 
roundings of that country. He came from there 
to England, where he finds the material conditions 
greatly changed. But he is the same man in Eng- 
land that he was in India ; and the same powers and 
capacities of mind which he brought from Hindostan 
study and contemplate these different conditions. 
His individual thoughts may differ ; for whereas 



1 62 Appettdix. 

in Hindostan lie may have seen the car of Jug- 
gernaut, an idol's temple, a banian-tree, and thought 
of them, in England he sees a railroad-car, a tem- 
ple of science, an oak-tree, a huge manufactory, 
and thinks about these. But the same mind does 
the thinking under all conditions. 

If the theory is true, that mind is the product of 
matter, when Mr. Jayram left India, and vacated 
its material relations, his memory of them would 
be entirely obliterated ; being absent from the mat- 
ter, the " accidents " must cease also. Kor could 
he ever think of them again until he was brought 
into the same conditions again ; and the conditions 
being the same, his thoughts must be the same 
that .they were before. And we should never re- 
member or know anything about any material fact, 
any longer than we were in material relations with, 
it ; aud the whole of our thoughts concerning matter 
would begin and end with these relations : and all 
our knowledge of things would also begin and end 
with our material connection with them. Memory 
we could not have, and so the accumulation of knowl- 
edge would be impossible. We should be like 
spouts, through which water runs, but in which 
none remains. And man would indeed be " an in- 
comprehensible nonsense, a mental negation, a mere 
nothing." That is about all materialism can give 
us. But we are told that our disembodied spirits 
are all these now, with a "mental nonentity" 



Appefidix. 163 

thrown in. Embodied or disembodied, the spirit 
remains the same in every change of its relations 
to matter. Mr. Jayram came to England with his 
mind stored with all the experience and knowledge 
he had gained in India. He remembers it all, and 
can think it all over. What would he think, to 
hear it said of him by his friends whom he left in 
India, " His thoughts cannot be any thing like our 
thoughts, since they are not produced under ma- 
terial conditions like ours " ? Would he not say, 
" I think precisely as I did before, only I have 
some different things to think about" ? 

He was, in a certain sense, disembodied from 
India, translated to and embodied in England. 
Vacating his relations to India, and taking on those 
to England, does not change in the slightest 
degree the qualities or capacities of his mind. 
And his coming to England only gives him in- 
creased opportunities for mental growth and cul- 
ture. So, vacating his material body will make no 
change in his mind ; but he will carry all the 
experience, knowledge, culture, of his material rela- 
tions into his spiritual, as the basis of still further 
growth and expansion. 

Indeed, according to "science," the man who 
has lived to the age of seventy years has already 
vacated his physical body at least ten times. 
Some physiologists say at least an hundred times ; 
but ten is enough. It is true, gradually, though 



164 Appendix. 

not imperceptibly, as any one may observe. But 
every item of experience and knowledge gained 
during this wbole period is still retained in the 
storehouse of his memory, although he may not be 
able at any moment to summon up each one 
of them : they are all there, nevertheless, ready for 
use. While not a particle of the original matter 
of his body remains. 

Waste and repair is the law of action in living 
bodies or animated matter. So that, from the 
age of twenty-five to eighty-five years, the waste and 
repair in the brain, nerves, and all the working 
organs of a man's body, just about keep pace with 
each other. The working organs of Humboldt's 
body, probably did not weigh more at eighty-five 
than they did at twenty-five years of age, and 
occupied no more space. But what an accumula- 
tion of knowledge, growth, strength, expansion, 
spiritual weighty his mind attained during these 
sixty years ! And my own body weighs at least 
fifteen pounds less now, at fifty-eight, than it did 
at twenty-five years of age, and is at times so 
frail that I cannot hold it up. And yet, in seasons 
of physical prostration, my mind is often clearest 
and strongest. 

Now, according to the theory that mind is the 
product or " accident" of matter, all the forms and 
qualities of thought generated in the mind must 
be chemically related to the kind of food ingested, 



Appendix. 165 

and must cease to exist from the instant the parti- 
cles of matter which produced them, or of which 
they are the accidents, are wasted and cast out of 
the system. New thoughts would be formed by 
the introduction of new matter for repair, and 
perish with its waste. And repair and waste of 
body and mind would keep exact pace with each 
other from birth till death ; and as no particle of 
the matter of a man's body remains in it more 
than seven years, so no thought of his mind 
could remain for a longer period. More : the brain 
must continue to produce these accidents in de- 
creasing proportions, until it is entirely decom- 
posed, the thoughts diminishing in the exact 
ratio of the decomposition of the brain ; the 
process being kept up an indefinite period after 
death. And this is what comes, logically, of Mr. 
Jayram's " rigorous methods " of materialistic 
reasoning. 

All the facts of mental growth and development 
tell directly against this theory. Science and fact 
never quarrel ; and moreover, a man's bones, brain, 
nerves, muscles, remain in the same state, by the 
process of repair, from maturity to old age. But 
what changes his mind undergoes ! In that, there 
is constant increase. Always growth, — learning 
more and more, never stopping in its onward 
progress ; so that facts, which are the basis of all 
science, are all against materialism, and in favor 



1 66 Appendix. 

of spiritualism, — including " theology/' if you 
please. 

" The first duty of every one who pretends to 
precision of thought or language is to analyze his 
conceptions, and understand the correct connotation 
of words." 

That, certainly, has a large sound to it, — a pre- 
tentious sound, as of something great to comej 
and here it comes : — 

" Now, matter and force, or energy, — turn these 
conceptions over as you will, ohserve them under 
what applications you choose, thej^ can mean, in 
their ultimate resolution, only one and the same 
thing seen under different aspects. By matter we 
understand neither more nor less than ' permanent 
possibilities of sensation.' At any moment mat- 
ter is to us nothing more than groups of sensations, 
possible and actual ; while energy means their re- 
arrangements, whether viewed as successive or 
synchronous." . . . "Hence the frivolity of all 
arguments drawn from force to establish a distinc- 
tion between matter and mind more fundamental 
than is implied in viewing the same thing from 
different stand-points." 

That is to say, a granite bowlder is neither 



Appendix, 1 6^ 

more nor less than a "permanent possibility of 
sensation," alwaj's provided there is somebody 
to "sense" it. But if tliere is no one to see, feel, 
hear, taste or smell it, then what ? " Matter and 
force mean only one and the same thing, seen 
under different aspects," "viewed from different 
stand-points." " Seeing " and " viewing " are also 
about "one and the same thing." 

Now what, according to Mr. Jay ram's 'science, 
is to do up the viewing? say, in such a sharp 
discussion as this, between one pile of matter 
on a London platform, and another here at Bos- 
ton, — as well as in all other cases ? " Science," 
this philosopher informs us, has reduced " all the 
phenomena of mind to the mere accidents of mat- 
ter; and matter itself "is neither more nor less 
than the permanent possibilities of sensation ; " and 
" to us," — to who, what? — why, to the accidents of 
matter — " nothing more than groups of sensations." 
And " there is no other distinction between matter 
and mind than is implied in viewing the same 
thing from different stand-points." 

Well, really, " science " does reduce man to " an 
incomprehensible nonsense " indeed. But again, 
I ask what is to " view " the same thing from 
different stand-points ; to study, analyze, compare, 
sit in judgment on the whole matter ? The ojily 
answer furnished by our lecturer is, that one 
"permanent possibility of sensation" is to view 
another. 



1 68 Appendix. 

It seems strange that any man with mental 
capacity enough to write a decent sentence, and to 
understand that two and two make four, can stand 
and think of the vast dominion which the mind 
of man has attained, and wields over matter, — 
subduing it in so many ways to his absolute con- 
trol, through his mental powers only, — a bullock 
having more physical strength, — and then at- 
tempt to explain it all by the bewildering array of 
such meaningless words as these ; which, " turn 
them over as you will, observe them under what 
applications you choose," give us not the slightest 
clew to a solution of the phenomena which he is 
attempting to explain, but only lead us deeper 
and deeper into the mire of his own confusion. 

And yet, unwittingly, he does help a certain 
class of " theologians." Of course, he never meant 
it so, for they believe, with him, that mind can- 
not exist separate from a material body, — that 
matter and mind, being one thing, are one eter- 
nally. And the matter of their bodies, through 
however so many changes and transformations it 
may pass, wiU be recomposed into human bodies 
again. And each body will again contain its own 
living, conscious soul, also recomposed at the same 
time with the resurrection of the body, therein to 
live in an eternal state of happiness and glory. 
And so, in his attempts to demolish all forms of 
religious belief, Mr. Jayram has furnished in his 



Appendix, 169 

own science a good solid material buttress for one 
which we thought would soon tumble down of 
itself And I think that both it and our Hindoo's 
science will fall together. 

Here comes Mr. Jayram's explanation of the 
whole subject : — 

" I believe it is now an asserted doctrine of sci- 
ence, at least, that each manifestation of mind is 
possible only as a manifestation of energy. Each 
sensation — each act of thought or volition — is 
simply a resultant of other forms of energy, kinet- 
ic and potential. Some antecedent energy of move- 
ment, external or internal, gives rise to a change 
of potential nervous energy, existing in the shape 
of unstable arrangements of nerve-matter, to actual 
energy of nerve currents, signifying processes of 
stable arrangement, while the change itself con- 
stitutes a state of mind." 



I have already stated that aptness of illustra- 
tion is my full apology for the intrusion of per- 
sons into this discussion, and will add some easily- 
supposed conditions to the case of our author for 
this purpose. He is a young Hindoo, educated in 
England ; and, abandoning his hereditary belief in 
innumerable gods, he has gone, very naturally 
at first, to the other extreme of believing in none. 
He left his father and mother, we will suppose, 



1 70 -Appendix, 

still living in India, firm adherents to tlie ancient 
faith, and clinging fast to its ancient rites. Let 
ns suppose, that, while he is delivering this lecture 
in South-place Chapel, a person, with nothing 
peculiar in his looks or manners to attract atten- 
tion, quietly enters, and, in a tone of voice marked 
by no emotion, requests the speaker's attention for 
a moment. 

He pauses, and the visitor proceeds, in the same 
tone of voice, to state that his father died but 
yesterday; that the funeral ceremonies had all 
been arranged according to time-honored customs ; 
and that to-night — at this very moment — his 
mother, true and loyal to ancient Hindoo usages 
and traditions, had given up her body a living 
sacrifice to her religious faith, and it was now 
being consumed by the devouring flames on the ' 
same funereal pile with that of his father. In such 
a case, the lecturer would be overwhelmed with 
grief, and would sink back in his chair, utterly un- 
able to proceed. 

Now, what, upon his theory, would be the cause 
of this sudden and painful revulsion of feeling? 
The only, or, at best, the chief explanation in his 
whole lecture, is given in the above extract : let 
us see what it amounts to : — 

" Some antecedent energy of movement, exter- 
nal or internal, gives rise to a change of potential 



Appendix, 171 

nervous energy existing in the shape of unstable 
arrangements of nerve-matter, to actual energy 
of nerve currents, signifying processes of stable 
arrangement; while the" change itself constitutes 
a state of mind." 

There we have it ! Who shall say that all the 
mysteries of the human soul are not solved, after 
this ? But let us not hurry the conclusion ; let us 
examine a little. " Some antecedent energy : " 
this is altogether too loose and indefinite for one 
who insists on such " rigorous modes of reasoning, 
and precision of language." As scientific inves- 
tigators, we have a right to know, upon your 
theory, precisely what this " antecedent energy " 
is, which, in a case like this, would cause the most 
sudden and painful revulsion of feeling. You, 
Mr. Jayram, have not given us the slightest clew, 
as to what this — in your loose language — 
" some " antecedent energy is ; so we will try and 
find it without your help. 

In this case, it is not the body of the messenger, 
it is not his deportment, it is not his voice ; for 
there is nothing unusual in any of these : but this 
energy is wholly in the idea which he communi- 
cates. It is altogether mental, and altogether 
mentally received. And if, instead of communi- 
cating the supposed painful intelligence, the mes- 
senger had stated that the lecturer s parents had 



172 Appendix. 

just arrived in London, full converts to the theo- 
ries of their son, and awaiting 'to embrace him, 
instead of grief, he would be filled with joy and 
satisfaction. The antecedent energy — in one case 
causing pain, and in the other pleasure. 

Now, it may be hard for a materialist to believe 
that ideas are really the forces — energies — which 
cause and govern all the phenomena of nature. 
Let him find these forces elsewhere if he can. 
And, in the case here supposed, all the changes ef- 
fected begin in the mind, — mind moving and act- 
ing upon matter. But, according to our Hindoo 
scientist and philosopher,- the agonies of feeling 
and the physical prostration, in a case like this, 
have their origin in some change of matter. But 
I have stated, and the lecturer himself must agree 
with me, that neither the sight of the messenger, 
the sound of his voice, nor his manner, could pos- 
sibly produce the described effect in such a case. 
And he, and every honest, thoughtful man must 
agree, that the only energy or force in the case is 
mind force ; and that all the changes and acts of 
the body are caused wholly by the mind, including 
the waste of the brain, nerves, and all the tissues. 

Farther on he tells us, " The first business of 
the militant Hindoo, then, is to insist upon the 
broad and impassable distinction between the 
knowable and unknowable. The sphere of the 
former is rightly defined by matter and its proper- 



Appe7idix. I 'jT^ 

ties. Matter and its properties are the only things 
possible to human cognition." 

And I have already quoted our author as say- 
ing, — "At any moment, matter is to us nothing 
more than groups of sensations, possible and 
actual." Let him make the application to a case 
like the one supposed, and to the thousands of 
actual cases of deepest sensations of sorrow and 
grief, and of joy and satisfaction, which are occur- 
ring in London, and wheresoever mankind dwell, 
every day and hour of their lives, — and in every 
case of which the shades of sensation differ widely, 
— and show precisely how matter varies its action 
to cause these differences. And, further, what 
causes the matter — groups of sensation — to act. 
Do it now ; or admit that the attempt to apply the 
tests of material science to the phenomena of 
mind are, to say the least, childish and puerile. 

But let us not leave this " antecedent energy " 
just yet. I have quoted Mr. Jayram as saying, 
" The series of phenomena which, in their concrete 
entirety, we denominate soul or mind, is never seen 
independently of the body." He forgets what he 
has said about " precision of language " here, 
when he talks of seeing vi'ind or soul ; but I pass 
that over, as his meaning is clear, and adopt his 
word. But what if mind is never seen indepen- 
dently of a body, does it follow that it is always 
seen in connection with a body ? He has, doubt- 



1 74 Appendix. 

less, seen many bodies, without the slightest traces 
of mind in connection with them. And some hu- 
man bodies have been preserved hundreds, yes, 
thousands of years, without giving a single trace 
of mind during all these years. And these bodies 
were preserved by a process invented by — by — 
what ? Why, "the mere accidents" of some 
otlier bodies. And we have also been told, in 
short, that there is no other difference between 
matter and mind, than " is implied in viewing the 
same thing from different stand-points." 

If mind is never seen independently of a body — 
matter, and if matter and mind are one thing, 
then how is it that mind is not ahvays " seen " in 
connection with matter, — all forms and varieties 
of it? A granite rock giving forth one manifesta- 
tion, a block of marble another, trap-rock another, 
gneiss another, copper, tin, lead, iron, and so on, 
to the end of the chapter, giving forth signs of 
mind? And who shall say that they do not? 
and that these solid minerals are not the forms 
in which the forces of the human mind itself are 
preserved in a latent or potential state, ready to 
be developed and iinfolded into active power 
through a most wonderfully complex material or- 
ganism? And before the matter of which this 
organism is composed — these rocks, this iron, and 
whatsoever is to enter into the structure of this 
body — can go there, and form a part thereof, it 



Appendix. 175 

must be pulverized, triturated, and reduced to 
gases and fluids ; and, after passing through changes 
which are still a myster}^, must re-appear in new 
forms ; and, if not endowed with new life, that 
which was before latent must now become active 
and potential. And the matter must be reduced 
to gases and fluids again, before they can form the 
complex mechanism of a human body. So it re- 
quires crude matter to undergo a great deal of 
preparation, involving many changes, before it can 
be at all fitted as an organ or instrument of the 
human mind. 

But what is to pulverize these mineral sub- 
stances, — carry them through all these changes, 
from rock to gas and fluid, then to vegetable, and 
then into all the tissues of a human body through 
wdiich viind can manifest itself in such infinitely 
varied forms? What is to do it all? Why, we 
have been told already. It is "some antecedent 
energy of movement." And what is that, pray ? 
Well, Mr. Jayram knows all about it; for he tells 
us that, — 

"The very idea that there is something un- 
knowable, over and above the knowable, — some- 
thing incomprehensible, over and above the com- 
prehensible, — is a mere freak, or unguarded slip ^ 
of thought, engendered by a peculiarity of lan- 
guage used in connection with such discussions. 



I 'j6 Appendix. 

Because the word ' know able/ by a law of rela- 
tive association, gives rise to or suggests its oppo- 
site, the unknowable, we are deluded into the 
belief that, as something real and actual in the 
objective world corresponds to its subjective no- 
tation, knowable, so there must also be something 
real and actual in objective existence correspond- 
ing to the opposite subjective notation, unknowa- 
ble ; though in the latter case the notation is 
simply a notation of negation." 

It must be admitted that Mr. Jayram has a 
large stock of words at his command; and he 
does, somehow, manage to " darken counsel " by 
them. 

Does light imply darkness, cold suppose heat, 
positive involve negative, limitable the illimitable, 
finite the infinite, comprehensible suggest or pre- 
sume the other extreme term, incomprehensible ? 
or because there are things known and knowable, 
does it follow that there are things unknown and 
unknowable ? Mr. Jayram tells us not. That to 
believe one extreme term supposes the other, and 
is dependent upon it, is " preposterous " " a mere 
freak, or unguarded slip of thought." And so all 
these antithetic ideas are " neither more nor less 
than one thing, seen under different aspects, and 
viewed from different stand-points." And he 
says, further, — 



Afpcndix. lyy 

t 

^' Surely, there is — tliere can be — neither 
value nor instruction in simply saying that cer- 
tain phenomena are yet unexplained, choose what 
words you please to say it. There is not, cer- 
tainly, more wisdom conveyed in this change of ex- 
pression, than in the oracular deliverance of the 
quack, who, being asked why opium produced 
sleep, gravely propounded, because it was sopo- 
rific." 

And so, when we ask this philosopher what 
this " antecedent energy " is, which performs all 
these processes and operations in the universe of 
mind and matter, he " gravely propounds," — It is 
" force." And that is his " oracular deliverance." 

Having thus proved to his satisfaction that his 
soul is " a mere accident " of his body, and that 
both will perish together, Mr. Jayram next as- 
sails the strongholds of theism, and attempts to 
demolish God, by the same " rigorous reasoning 
and precision of language " that have given him 
such a victory over the "theologians." Before 
giving ear to him on this point, 1 wish to intro- 
duce some remarks and illustrations. 

Some people are piqued at the idea that there is 
any thing in the universe which is greater and 
knows more than man does. And the idea of an 
Infinite Intelligence, which orders, arranges, and 
presides over all the processes and operations of 

12 



178 Appendix. 

Nature, excites tlieir hostility ; and they greedily 
lay hold of any supposed fact or theory which they 
can turn against it. And theologians themselves 
are largely responsible for this hostility ; for they 
have tried to clothe this Intelligence — God — 
with many inhuman and most hateful attributes, 
and have resorted to the most infamous crimes to 
enforce their peculiar dogmas upon the acceptance 
of others ; and as, — 

'* The name of God has fenced about all crime with holiness," 

this name and idea has also become an offence to 
many humane and thoughtful people. And so the 
question of mere character came at length to be 
a question of existence or fact ; and the contro- 
versy, from certain causes, acquired great interest 
about the close of the last, and the beginning of 
the present, century. 

What cause underlies the orderly, methodical, 
and constantly-recurring processes and operations 
of Nature, with their fixed and certain produc- 
tions 1. Are they the results of an inventive, 
creative, and formative Mind ? Up to that period, 
there had been no full, clear, and methodical state- 
ment of reasons, based upon the facts and phe- 
nomena of Nature, to prove the affirmative of this 
question. Everybody saw the products, but had 
not thought of the how or why they were pro- 
duced. And here let me use an illustration : — 



Appendix, 1 79 

Cotton is grown of several grades, and is 
wrought into different fabrics, — species ; and the 
species, again, into varieties. The specie? of can- 
vas, or duck, from heavy to light, in several 
varieties ; species of flannels, drillings, sheetings, 
and so on, with their several varieties of fine, 
coarse, «Scc. There are millions of people who are 
utterly ignorant as to how these cloths are made ; 
yet nobody ever imagined that a single one of 
them ever happened. And the great mass of 
unscientific minds have fallen into the notion, 
that these cotton fibres could not have accident- 
ally arranged themselves in groups, — the coarse 
in one, the middling in another, the fine in 
another, and so on ; and then to have acci- 
dent-ally twisted themselves into threads, in 
size corresponding to the size of the fibre ; 
and then, again, to have accidentally woven 
themselves into these difl'erent species and varie- 
ties of fabrics, which are so nicely adapted to 
their various uses. They will persist in believing 
that all these processes and operations, with all the 
buildings and machinery, must be the results of 
design, which involves a designing mind. While 
some shake their heads in doubt, — they are not 
going to swallow both Jonah and the whale. They 
are too scientific for that. 

And an investigator goes into an examination 
of the subject, and shows, in an elaborate and un- 



i8o Appendix. 

.answerable argument, that the production of such 
a variety of fabrics, with the fibres and threads so 
nicely adapted to the texture, and all to the use, — 
the invention and construction of the machinery 
by which they are produced, the building in which 
the machinery is located, and the wise adaptation 
of force to the whole, proves conclusively the " an- 
tecedent energy " of an inventive, designing mind. 
That was Mr. Paley ; and, on the publication of his 
book, every form of atheistic and materialistic ar- 
gument was arrayed against it. But the argu- 
ment still stands, and will stand. 

Later, another investigator enters a certain part 
of the field : he is, in this relation, what Mr. Jay- 
ram calls " a mere specialist." He wishes only to 
ascertain what the cloth is, and how it is made. 
As to who invented the machinery, built the fac- 
tory, put the machinery in it, and set it all in opera- 
tion, he does not inquire. He is neither inventor 
nor builder ; and these matters lie outside of his 
province. So he goes into the great manufactory, 
thoroughly examines the goods, the machinery by 
which they are made, the relation of room to room 
(country to country), the temperature of the va- 
rious rooms (climatic influences), the nice and fa- 
vorable adaptation of all the arrangements to the 
production of all the various species and varieties 
of fabrics (the laws of selection, «Scc.) of the whole 
establishment. But he does not inquire who de- 



Appendix. 1 8 1 

signed and built the factory, invented the machin- 
ery, and set it in operation : he leaves these topics 
to others. He found the factory built, and all the 
machinery at work. And if others choose to 
search out these matters, they can do so: he has 
taken them for granted. He writes his book on 
his branch of the subject. That is Mr. Darwin. 
And if anj^body saj^s Mr. Darwin is trying to rule 
the idea of an intelligent Cause of the phenomena 
of nature out of the universe, they say it on their 
responsibility, not his. But the subject is yet under 
discussion, and so is, to some minds, still debatable. 
And now comes Mr. Jayram, full of confidence 
and assurance, stalking into the arena, and deal- 
ing out his blows anywhere, everywhere, hit or 
miss. Let us hear him ; but we pass over his first 
fire as inconsequential, as it is entirely lost in its 
own echoes, and attend to the next. 

" The second source of contribution to the theis- 
tic argument used to be supplied in the now ex- 
ploded doctrine of design. The venerable Paley, 
with his ^ Natural Theology,' has taken his final 
rest, let us hope, among those that have been. At 
any rate, we shall not disturb him or his theology 
in his grave. All reconsideration of the argument 
put forth therein is now rendered supererogatory, 
particularly after the publication of Darwin's 
great work on the ' Origin of Species.' Irrespect- 



1 82 ' Appendix. 

ive of the grand service it has rendered to biolo- 
gy, its merit in having given the death-blow to a 
rotten speculation cannot be too highly estimated. 
But, though one phase of the contest is over, an- 
other has succeeded it ; and, strange to say, the 
very book which put the final seal of silence on 
the first, has occasioned the advent of the second. 
The fault, however, is not in the book, but in 
those who could not, or would not, understand it. 
It is a well-known fact, that its opponents continue 
to this day to find fault with it for not explaining 
things which do not properly fall within its scope." 

The burden of Mr. Jayram's lecture is, to dis- 
prove the existence of any intelligent directing 
force in nature : and, indeed, of all force, except 
what grows out of matter, — stones, &c. But his 
special point is made against theism. And one 
would suppose that Darwin's great work on the 
" Origin of Species " (explaining how the cloth is 
made) had furnished him with an ample supply of 
unanswerable arguments on that side of the ques- 
tion, — that the factory had no designer. But, on 
sifting down these arguments, we find nothing left 
but an array of "words of learned length and 
thundering sound ; " for, in the very next sentence, 
he tells us that Mr. Darwin does not say one 
word upon the subject of theology. Speaking of 
his book, he says, — 



Appendix. 1 83 

'*It professes only to explain how favorable 
tendencies in variation are fixed npon and consol- 
idated into specific distinctions, by the operation 
of certain intelligible causes, which, taken to- 
gether, are denominated hepe, figuratively, the 
^ law of natural selection.' It has fiothing to do 
with, and does not pretend to propound, how these 
favorable teudencies themselves come into exist- 
ence, It ti^kes then^ for granted, and shows only 
how they are utilised by the law, which it is its 
special merit to have digcoyerecl, in directions 
never before dreamed of. " 

That is true. Mp. Darwin does not raise the 
question of primeval causation at all. And you, 
Mr. Jayram. are deluding yourself, when you think 
you have n^ade the slightest eQ^ective use of them 
as against the argun^ent fronj design. Now, please 
tell us '■'■ how these favorable tendencies themselves 
came into existence " ? Who built the factory, in- 
vented the machinery, set it up, applied the force, 
and put it all ii; operation? You reply, "Noth- 
ing : it was built before ; it never was built. " 
That is a " a potten speculation," which " Darwin's 
great work " has " exploded," and " given the 
death-blow to, and put the fiual seal of silence on 
it." Nay, nay ; but how can;e '^ these favorable 
tendencies " ? You say, " It takes them for 
granted-" The ostrich buries its Jie^d in tha 



184 Appendix, 

sand, when hard pushed ; and you attempt to hide 
yours under the following heap : — 

" And yet, strangely enough, as human perver- 
sity would have it, this has led, on the one side, to 
a world of misrepresentation and had criticism ; 
while, on the other, it has given rise to a new 
school of theistic philosophy, not better entitled to 
consideration than the one it has so effectually 
abolished. 

" To view this protean error in its new metamor- 
phosis : Since the principle of natural selection, 
however successfully it unriddles what were once 
supposed to be mj'-sterious cases of design, affords 
no explanation for the origin of favorable tenden- 
cies in variation, it has been imagined that the 
ground of design might safely be shifted from the 
old position of Paley, no longer tenable, to this 
new one, of unexplained variations. One might 
almost be tem;^ted to believe that people actually 
deplore the advances of knowledge, when he sees 
how they hug and hail every remnant of mystery 
as a sacred relic of salvation, safe yet from the 
sacrilegious hand of science. In self-congratula- 
tions on their present escape from that which a 
while since threatened total ruin, they seem to 
forget that the contest is not yet over, that the 
dreaded enemy is still advancing steadily, that a 
momentary respite is not permanent immunity 



Appendix. 185 

from danger. It never seems to occur to them 
that their present position may prove quite as fal- 
lacious — quite as untenable — as any of those 
they have been compelled so often to abandon. 
Even stern experience teaches them no prudence. 
Though the burned dog dreads the fire, the burned 
theologian never does. Happy insensibility, but 
pregnant with ruin ! " 

We have listened to your grandiloquent words ; 
now let us return to the point again. We left off 
here, — " It takes them for granted." 

Does science take things for granted? Now, 
when we come to the very pith and marrow of the 
whole subject, you go off into a long string of 
words, almost enough to stun people with their 
din, but which give us no light or clew to unravel 
the mystery in which we are involved. And with 
these words, you think to rout the whole host of 
theologians. 

Science takes nothing for granted. It reasons from 
effects to their causes ; and when it has certainly as- 
certained the causes of any phenomena, it concludes 
that the same causes, acting under the same condi- 
tions, will invariably produce the same effects. It 
never finds effects before causes, nor elevated above 
or greater than causes. So, when it contemplates 
this world full of men, with their joys, sorrows, 
loves, hopes, aspirations, ambitions, vast powers of 



1 86 - Appendix. 

conception, invention, execution, — all that make 
up the sum of human life, with the innumerable 
forms of life below man, and the vast, complicated 
systems in the universe above him, swayed, moved, 
and controlled by powers utterly above and beyond 
him, Science, reasoning from cause to effect, says, 
Force is only born of force ; life ^omes only of that 
which is alive ; the power to reason comeg only 
from the power to reason ; intelligence comes only 
of that which is intelligent ; the power to in- 
vent, construct, build, comes only from the power 
to invent, construct, build ; and so on, through the 
whole circle of human capacity and affection. And 
it looks upon this vast system of the universe, in all 
its grandest outlines and minutest details, includ- 
ing Mr. Darwin's facts and speculations oq them, 
together with your misuse of them, as effects of a 
constantly operating cause, which is fully equal to 
their production. 

In addition to taking these "favorable tenden- 
cies " for granted, we are told that Mr, Darwin's 
book " shows how they were utilized by the law, 
&c." And so it was the "law" that did the work, 
after all. What law ? and how came it into existence ? 
Did blind, unthinking chance or f^ccidejit ever 
establish any fixed and orderly rules of procedure, 
in any relation whatever ? We have always sup- 
posed that the existence of a law was sufficient 
proof of an iijtelligeftce and power, somewhere, fully 



\ 



Appendix. 1 87 

competent to establish it. Is that idea '^ exploded " 
also? We .are told, further, that Mr. Darwin 
discovered the law. Possibly another voyage may 
lead to the discovery that this law is no other 
than the established order or method by which the 
Infinite Intelligence of the universe carries on its 
formative operations. 

The main point in the controversy between Mr. 
Jayram and the spiritualists, or religionists, and 
theologians, is involved in the question which he 
declines to answer, or even to consider. He thinks 
Mr. Darwin's book has forever silenced all argu- 
ments to be drawn from nature, in favor of an in- 
telligent, designing Mind, as being antecedent to 
and working through its processes and operations. 
And then, as if to anticipate any questions which 
might arise on this very point, which Darwin did 
not touch, he says, " It professes only to explain 
how favorable tendencies, in variation, are fixed 
upon and consolidated into specific distinctions by 
the operation of certain intelligible causes." 

An intelligible cause is a cause w^hich we can 
comprehend. What are the causes which Mr. 
Darwin refers to ? All the material conditions un- 
der which organic life is formed and subsists, — such 
as earth, water, light, air, temperature, peculiarities 
of climate, soil, moist, dry, &c., &c. Birds that 
live upon the creatures that swarm in marshes and 
shallow w^aters have long legs and bills. Mr, 



1 88 Appendix. 

Darwin thinks that the birds may originally have 
had short legs and bills ; and the necessity of wad- 
ing after their food may have caused them to grow 
long. (Although it may be urged, with equal force, 
that birds with short legs and bills have descended 
from ancestors with long ones ; but, falling under 
conditions where long ones were not necessary to 
the modes of life, they have become short.) So 
in regard to mammals. Such as climb trees for 
their food have long, sharp claws, and long, verti- 
cal pupils. Their pupils may have been originally 
round, and their nails short, and that " natural se- 
lection" caused both to grow long (the converse 
of this is equally good) ; and all other creatures he 
finds adapted to their conditions. 

And Mr. Jayram thinks these speculations have 
completeljT- demolished all ideas of intelligent caus- 
ation. But when we ask. How came all these "fa- 
vorable tendencies," and these " intelligible caus- 
es," to be so nicely arranged and adjusted as to 
produce all this orderly succession of fixed and es- 
tablished forms of organic life, each so nicely adapt- 
ed to all the necessities of its own existence, he 
complains of " human perversity," and that we have 
" shifted the grounds of design from the old one of 
Palej'', to this new one of " unexplained variations ; " 
and seems to think it unfair, after he has tried so 
hard to overthrow the " theologians," that they 
should compel him to fight his battles all over 



Appendix. 189 

again. Well, he invited the conflict : let him be 
content with the issue. 

But let us not leave this matter of " unexplained 
variations " quite yet. The notion is quite prev- 
alent that the argument from design goes to this 
extent : that God created man, and all other be- 
ings, directly, as a human mechanic makes any 
piece of handiwork; and that he made all the class- 
es, orders, species of animals perfect, at the out- 
set ; and that no change or transformation has 
occurred in any of them since. Now, the argu- 
ment really involves no such limited idea. For it 
includes the " evolution " theory, and all other 
theories as well. 

Mr. Darwin thinks that all the forms of organic 
life have been evolved through slowly-advancing, 
step-by-step processes, by the operation of natural 
causes. But he does not consider how these causes 
themselves came into existence ; nor whence 
came, or how the force is supplied, which set and 
keeps them all in operation. And yet he knows, 
and everybody else knows as well, that a cotton- 
gin which clears cotton of the seeds with great 
speed and perfection, is as clear a proof of design 
in the preparation of cotton for use, as the slow 
and laborious mode of picking out the seeds by 
hand is. 

Let us use another simple illustration. Stock- 
ings are made by hand, by the aid of a few little 



190 Appendix. 

pieces of wire, and have been so made from time 
immemorial. My friend Carey has invented, — 
" designed," and set a machine in operation, which, 
if it can get hold of one end of a spool of yarn, 
will draw it in, and, stitch by stitch, " work and 
weave," narrow down the leg, turn and finish the 
heel, shape out the instep and foot, narrow off the 
toe, and pass a whole completed stocking out at 
the other end ; and immediately re-adjust itself, 
commence, and complete another ; and so on in- 
definitely, turning out these articles with a rapid- 
ity truly surprising. And what is more, all the 
required changes in the action of the parts neces- 
sary to make the stocking of the desired size and 
shape are effected automatically. 

Somebody — Darwin, it may be — writes an 
elaborate and intoresting description of this ma- 
chine, and its mode of producing stockings; 
and that its power of production is immensely 
greater than the three or four pieces of straight 
wire and ten fingers. But he does not inquire 
about the inventor, — designer, — does not even 
ask his name. And yet he knows that the making 
and adjustment of that machine were all the work 
of human hands ; and that these hands were gov- 
erned in all their movements by an intelligent, 
designing mind ; and without this mind, the hands 
could not move, — the machine could not exist ; 
and the mind is really manifested in all the move- 



Appendix. • 191 

ments and operations of the machine also. And 
Mr. Darwin is wise enough to apply the same 
laws, though under different forms of operation, 
to the grand mechanisms of Nature, with all 
their varied and innumerable products ; hut this 
last part of the subject, being deeper than human 
plummet can yet sound, he wastes no time in the 
attempt. 

Well, Mr. Jayram, being a born prince, doubt- 
less wore stockings in India ; while it is equally 
doubtful if he had ever seen them made. And 
yet he may very naturally have supposed them to 
be the result of some designing mind. But, on 
coming to England, he falls into the drift of " sci- 
entific thought " in that country, and begins to 
doubt. He reads Mr. Darwin's book on the knit- 
ting-machine, and its transformation of yarn into 
stitches, and of stitches into leg, ankle, heel, foot, 
and toe, a complete species of stocking, with 
all its varieties ; and his faith in thirty million 
gods vanishes into thin air; and before he has 
had time to more than fill their places with the 
grand, yet truthful and beautiful idea that — 

" All are but parts of one stupendous whole 
Whose body nature is, and God the soul, " — 

he comes out with the profoiindly " scientific " " de- 
liverance," that this book "successfully unriddles 
what were once supposed to be mysterious cases 



192 Appendix. 

of desigu ; " and lias reached the sage conclusion 
that the human soul is " an incomprehensible 
nonsense," and that " God may be any thing or 
nothing," " for what he cares." 

He has read Darwin's book, and knows all about 
making stockings (the processes and operations of 
Nature) ; and there is no design or plan about it, as 
it is all done by " the mere favorable tendencies " of 
wood and iron, with their " intelligible causes," 
and "unexplained variations." And the mind which 
invented the machine, applied the force, set it in 
operation, and governs and regulates its move- 
ments, is only "the mere accident of matter;" 
and matter itself "is neither more nor less than 
the permanent possibilities of sensation." And 
after all this wonderful display of " rigorous reason- 
ing," Mr. Jayram groans out, " One might almost 
be tempted to believe that people actually deplore 
the advance of knowledge, when he sees how they 
hug and hail every remnant of myster}", as a sacred 
relic of salvation, safe yet from the sacrilegious 
hand of Science." And I cannot but think the 
" advance " of such " knowledge " as that to which 
we are treated in this lecture may be, on the 
whole, deplorable. 

But he tells us " that the dreaded enemy is still 
advancing steadily." The lord mayor of London, 
when out hunting, was told to "look out, as a hare 
was coming." Rising in his stirrups, and brandish- 



Appendix. 193 

ing his sword, he exclaimed : " In God's naDie, let it 
come ? I'm not afeared ! " So, while I hope that 
this '^ dreaded enemy " will advance slowly, and 
don't care if he advances backwards, I can truly 
say, " I'm not afeared." 

But seriously : If Mr. Darwin's theories are 
really supported by the facts, and are true, then 
all these mechanisms of nature, which are here 
spoken of as mere ^^ favorable tendencies " and 
" unexplained variations," by which all the forms 
of organic life are produced and endowed with 
their various attributes, powers, capacities, fur- 
nish as clear and strong proofs of design as the 
most ardent believers in the doctrines of Paley 
could ask for ; and even more, as it requires a 
higher order of inventive genius and skill to de- 
vise and construct a machine which shall success- 
fully do any given work, than it does to do the 
same work bj'- hand. 

So it requires a higher order of designing mind 
to arrange and adjust the material conditions, rela- 
tions, and forces of nature,to th^ orderly production 
and succession of. all the innumerable forms of 
organic life, than it does to sit down like a crafts- 
man, — if such a thing be conceivable, — and make 
them all by hand at the outset. And if all these 
forms of life have been slowly evolved, through 
numerous transformations of outward structure, 
from the cell, — a process requiring, perhaps, mil- 



194 Appendix. 

lions of years for its accomplishment, — the proofs 
of design only multiply with the complication of 
the mechanisms, and their increased facility and 
power of production; as all devices, inventions, 
relations of forces and conditions, must come short 
of the inventive wisdom and power which " de- 
signed,'' arranged, and set them all in operation. 
And hence, the combined designing intelligence, 
inventive wisdom, science, learning, power of ap- 
plication, of all living men, and all other beings, — 
all that have lived and shall live, — can never 
transcend, or even equal, in any one of these attri- 
butes, the Source from whence they are derived. 
And any inquiry as to how God came to exist, 
only enhances the grandeur of the subject, and 
the difficulties with which it is environed, as it 
merely sets primal causation a step farther back- 
ward, and still farther beyond the power of human 
comprehension ; and if any one feels aggrieved by 
the existing state of things, and don't like the name 
or idea of God, as the cause of them all, let him shift 
the whole responsibility upon Nature, and get all 
the consolation he can from a mere change of 
names: both the facts and the causes will remain 
unchanged by any such childish by-play. 

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